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Lee S, Rutishauser U, Gothard KM. Social Status as a Latent Variable in the Amygdala of Observers of Social Interactions. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.07.15.603487. [PMID: 39071330 PMCID: PMC11275939 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.15.603487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/30/2024]
Abstract
Successful integration into a hierarchical social group requires knowledge of the status of each individual and of the rules that govern social interactions within the group. In species that lack morphological indicators of status, social status can be inferred by observing the signals exchanged between individuals. We simulated social interactions between macaques by juxtaposing videos of aggressive and appeasing displays where two individuals appeared in each other's line of sight and their displays were timed to suggest the reciprocation of dominant and subordinate signals. Viewers of these videos successfully inferred the social status of the interacting characters. Dominant individuals attracted more social attention from viewers even when they were not engaged in social displays. Neurons in the viewers' amygdala signaled the status of both the attended (fixated) and the unattended individuals suggesting that in third party observers of social interactions, the amygdala signals jointly the status of interacting parties. Highlights Monkeys infer the social status of conspecifics from videos of simulated dyadic interactionsDuring fixations neural populations signal the social status of the attended individualsNeurons in the amygdala jointly encode the status of interacting individuals. In brief Third party-viewers of pairwise dominant-subordinate interactions infer social status from the observed behaviors. Neurons in the amygdala are tuned to the inferred dominant/subordinate status of both individuals.
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2
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Kunimatsu J, Amita H, Hikosaka O. Neuronal response of the primate striatum tail to face of socially familiar persons. iScience 2024; 27:110043. [PMID: 38868184 PMCID: PMC11167483 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Revised: 03/21/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that the basal ganglia, the center of stimulus-reward associative learning, are involved in social behavior. However, the role of the basal ganglia in social information processing remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the striatum tail (STRt) in macaque monkeys, which is sensitive to visual objects with long-term reward history (i.e., stable object value), is also sensitive to socially familiar persons. Many STRt neurons responded to face images of persons, especially those who took daily care of the subject monkeys. These face-responsive neurons also encoded stable object value. The strength of the neuronal modulation of social familiarity and stable object value biases were positively correlated. These results suggest that both social familiarity and stable object value information are mediated by a common neuronal mechanism. Thus, the representation of social information is linked to reward information in the STRt, not in the dedicated social information circuit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Kunimatsu
- Labortory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Division of Biomedical Science, Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
- Transborder Medical Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8577, Japan
| | - Hidetoshi Amita
- Labortory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Systems Neuroscience Section, Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan
| | - Okihide Hikosaka
- Labortory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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Jimenez CA, Meyer ML. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex prioritizes social learning during rest. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2309232121. [PMID: 38466844 PMCID: PMC10962978 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2309232121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Sociality is a defining feature of the human experience: We rely on others to ensure survival and cooperate in complex social networks to thrive. Are there brain mechanisms that help ensure we quickly learn about our social world to optimally navigate it? We tested whether portions of the brain's default network engage "by default" to quickly prioritize social learning during the memory consolidation process. To test this possibility, participants underwent functional MRI (fMRI) while viewing scenes from the documentary film, Samsara. This film shows footage of real people and places from around the world. We normed the footage to select scenes that differed along the dimension of sociality, while matched on valence, arousal, interestingness, and familiarity. During fMRI, participants watched the "social" and "nonsocial" scenes, completed a rest scan, and a surprise recognition memory test. Participants showed superior social (vs. nonsocial) memory performance, and the social memory advantage was associated with neural pattern reinstatement during rest in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), a key node of the default network. Moreover, it was during early rest that DMPFC social pattern reinstatement was greatest and predicted subsequent social memory performance most strongly, consistent with the "prioritization" account. Results simultaneously update 1) theories of memory consolidation, which have not addressed how social information may be prioritized in the learning process, and 2) understanding of default network function, which remains to be fully characterized. More broadly, the results underscore the inherent human drive to understand our vastly social world.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Meghan L. Meyer
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY10027
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4
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Kawaguchi Y, Tomonaga M. Assessing the motivational value of infant video clips on chimpanzees through discrimination learning task. Dev Psychobiol 2024; 66:e22470. [PMID: 38356136 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024]
Abstract
The motivational value of visual infant stimuli in humans is considered to encourage parental behavior. To explore the evolutionary roots of this preference for infants, we examined the reward value of conspecific infant videos compared to adult ones in nine chimpanzees. We employed a novel approach, a simultaneous discrimination task with differential sensory reinforcement. In Experiments 1 and 2, we tested if watching conspecific infant videos is more rewarding than watching adult ones. Participants were required to discriminate between two visual stimuli by a touch panel task. In video reward trials, a video clip featuring a chimpanzee infant followed a correct choice, while one featuring an adult followed an incorrect choice. However, the percentage of correct choices did not significantly differ from chance except in one chimpanzee, indicating that chimpanzees did not exhibit a preference for watching infant videos over those of adult. In Experiment 3, we tested if chimpanzees prefer conspecific videos over a blank screen; however, we did not find evidence either at a group level. These results suggest that the incentive salience of infant stimuli may not be universally compelling across species. Additionally, we discuss the limitations of the task using sensory reinforcement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuri Kawaguchi
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan
| | - Masaki Tomonaga
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Human Environments, Matsuyama, Japan
- Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Japan
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5
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Fazel S, Vahabie AH, Navi FFT, Heysieattalab S. Unraveling the social hierarchy: Exploring behavioral and neural dynamics in shaping inhibitory control. Behav Brain Res 2024; 456:114686. [PMID: 37775080 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 08/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/01/2023]
Abstract
Inhibitory control is crucial for regulating emotions, suppressing biases, and inhibiting inappropriate responses in social interactions. Social rank, or perceived position in the hierarchy, can influence inhibitory control, with high-rank individuals requiring it to regulate dominant behavior and low-rank individuals requiring it to regulate emotional reactions or avoid submissive behaviors. Furthermore, research suggests that social status can affect the neural mechanisms underlying inhibitory control, leading to differences in abilities and strategies based on perceived rank. In this study, we investigated the effects of social rank on inhibitory control using a dot estimation task to prime social hierarchy. Subsequently, we assessed the inhibitory control of the participants using a Go/Nogo task with photos of individuals in different social ranks. The study recruited a total of 43 students (22 males and 21 females), with a mean age of 26.8 years (SD=4.08). We measured both behavioral (reaction time and response accuracy) and electrophysiological (N200 and P300 event-related potentials) responses to investigate the neural correlates of inhibitory control. Results showed that participants responded slower to lower-rank individuals but had higher accuracy when inhibiting their response to them. The N200 amplitude was greater when presented with higher ranks stimuli in Go trials, indicating greater conflict monitoring, while the P300 amplitude was significantly higher in Nogo trials compared to Go trials. These findings suggest that social rank can influence inhibitory control and highlight the importance of considering the impact of social hierarchy in social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soroush Fazel
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Abdol-Hossein Vahabie
- Cognitive Systems Laboratory, Control, and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence (CIPCE), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
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6
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Ballesta S, Meunier H. Is this worth the trouble? Strategic conflict management in Tonkean macaques. iScience 2023; 26:108176. [PMID: 37915605 PMCID: PMC10616331 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Revised: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Conflict management entails preventing and repairing damages resulting from social conflicts. While previous research has emphasized post-conflict actions like reconciliation, the understanding of how primates weigh the costs and benefits of conflict remains limited. Uncovering this hidden but fundamental aspect of conflict management requires addressing actively avoided social conflicts. In a study involving semi-free ranging Tonkean macaques, individuals were presented with social dilemmas: displacing a peer to access a preferred juice reward or opting for a peer-free but less preferred one to avoid conflict. The results showed that subjects attributed a cost to the social conflict and did not demonstrate a systematic drive to dominate. Decision modeling revealed integration of peer hierarchy and reward subjective value, with subjects' own social rank impacting the balance between these social and economic dimensions. Overall, this research highlights how primates strategically address group cohesion and peacekeeping, sometimes at the expense of personal preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sébastien Ballesta
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, UMR 7364, Strasbourg, France
- Centre de Primatologie de l’Université de Strasbourg, Niederhausbergen, France
| | - Hélène Meunier
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, UMR 7364, Strasbourg, France
- Centre de Primatologie de l’Université de Strasbourg, Niederhausbergen, France
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7
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Baumann MP, Bogadhi AR, Denninger AF, Hafed ZM. Sensory tuning in neuronal movement commands. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2305759120. [PMID: 37695898 PMCID: PMC10515157 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2305759120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Movement control is critical for successful interaction with our environment. However, movement does not occur in complete isolation of sensation, and this is particularly true of eye movements. Here, we show that the neuronal eye movement commands emitted by the superior colliculus (SC), a structure classically associated with oculomotor control, encompass a robust visual sensory representation of eye movement targets. Thus, similar saccades toward different images are associated with different saccade-related "motor" bursts. Such sensory tuning in SC saccade motor commands appeared for all image manipulations that we tested, from simple visual features to real-life object images, and it was also strongest in the most motor neurons in the deeper collicular layers. Visual-feature discrimination performance in the motor commands was also stronger than in visual responses. Comparing SC motor command feature discrimination performance to that in the primary visual cortex during steady-state gaze fixation revealed that collicular motor bursts possess a reliable perisaccadic sensory representation of the peripheral saccade target's visual appearance, exactly when retinal input is expected to be most uncertain. Our results demonstrate that SC neuronal movement commands likely serve a fundamentally sensory function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias P Baumann
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Amarender R Bogadhi
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Central Nervous Systems Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach 88400, Germany
| | - Anna F Denninger
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
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8
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Wilson VAD, Masilkova M. Does the primate face cue personality? PERSONALITY NEUROSCIENCE 2023; 6:e7. [PMID: 38107779 PMCID: PMC10725780 DOI: 10.1017/pen.2023.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/31/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
When looking at others, primates primarily focus on the face - detecting the face first and looking at it longer than other parts of the body. This is because primate faces, even without expression, convey trait information crucial for navigating social relationships. Recent studies on primates, including humans, have linked facial features, specifically facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), to rank and Dominance-related personality traits, suggesting these links' potential role in social decisions. However, studies on the association between dominance and fWHR report contradictory results in humans and variable patterns in nonhuman primates. It is also not clear whether and how nonhuman primates perceive different facial cues to personality traits and whether these may have evolved as social signals. This review summarises the variable facial-personality links, their underlying proximate and evolutionary mechanisms and their perception across primates. We emphasise the importance of employing comparative research, including various primate species and human populations, to disentangle phylogeny from socio-ecological drivers and to understand the selection pressures driving the facial-personality links in humans. Finally, we encourage researchers to move away from single facial measures and towards holistic measures and to complement perception studies using neuroscientific methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa A D Wilson
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Michaela Masilkova
- Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
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9
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Xie Y, Huang L, Corona A, Pagliaro AH, Shea SD. A dopaminergic reward prediction error signal shapes maternal behavior in mice. Neuron 2023; 111:557-570.e7. [PMID: 36543170 PMCID: PMC9957971 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.11.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Revised: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 11/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
How social contact is perceived as rewarding and subsequently modifies interactions is unclear. Dopamine (DA) from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) regulates sociality, but the ongoing, unstructured nature of free behavior makes it difficult to ascertain how. Here, we tracked the emergence of a repetitive stereotyped parental retrieval behavior and conclude that VTA DA neurons incrementally refine it by reinforcement learning (RL). Trial-by-trial performance was correlated with the history of DA neuron activity, but DA signals were inconsistent with VTA directly influencing the current trial. We manipulated the subject's expectation of imminent pup contact and show that DA signals convey reward prediction error, a fundamental component of RL. Finally, closed-loop optogenetic inactivation of DA neurons at the onset of pup contact dramatically slowed emergence of parental care. We conclude that this component of maternal behavior is shaped by an RL mechanism in which social contact itself is the primary reward.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunyao Xie
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA; State Key Laboratory of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Longwen Huang
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA; State Key Laboratory of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Alberto Corona
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA
| | - Alexa H Pagliaro
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA
| | - Stephen D Shea
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
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10
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Garcia-Nisa I, Evans C, Kendal RL. The influence of task difficulty, social tolerance and model success on social learning in Barbary macaques. Sci Rep 2023; 13:1176. [PMID: 36670123 PMCID: PMC9860066 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-26699-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite playing a pivotal role in the inception of animal culture studies, macaque social learning is surprisingly understudied. Social learning is important to survival and influenced by dominance and affiliation in social animals. Individuals generally rely on social learning when individual learning is costly, and selectively use social learning strategies influencing what is learned and from whom. Here, we combined social learning experiments, using extractive foraging tasks, with network-based diffusion analysis (using various social relationships) to investigate the transmission of social information in free-ranging Barbary macaques. We also investigated the influence of task difficulty on reliance on social information and evidence for social learning strategies. Social learning was detected for the most difficult tasks only, with huddling relations outside task introductions, and observation networks during task introductions, predicting social transmission. For the most difficult task only, individuals appeared to employ a social learning strategy of copying the most successful demonstrator observed. Results indicate that high social tolerance represents social learning opportunities and influences social learning processes. The reliance of Barbary macaques on social learning, and cues of model-success supports the costly information hypothesis. Our study provides more statistical evidence to the previous claims indicative of culture in macaques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Garcia-Nisa
- Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK.
| | - Cara Evans
- Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | - Rachel L Kendal
- Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK
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11
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Rodman AM, Powers KE, Kastman EK, Kabotyanski KE, Stark AM, Mair P, Somerville LH. Physical Effort Exertion for Peer Feedback Reveals Evolving Social Motivations From Adolescence to Young Adulthood. Psychol Sci 2023; 34:60-74. [PMID: 36283029 PMCID: PMC9982232 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221121351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Peer relationships and social belonging are particularly important during adolescence. Using a willingness-to-work paradigm to quantify incentive motivation, we examined whether evaluative information holds unique value for adolescents. Participants (N = 102; 12-23 years old) rated peers, predicted how peers rated them, and exerted physical effort to view each peer's rating. We measured grip force, speed, and opt-out behavior to examine the motivational value of peer feedback, relative to money in a control condition, and to assess how peer desirability and participants' expectations modulated motivated effort across age. Overall, when compared with adolescents, adults were relatively less motivated for feedback than money. Whereas adults exerted less force and speed for feedback when expecting rejection, adolescents exerted greater force and speed when expecting to be more strongly liked or disliked. These findings suggest that the transition into adulthood is accompanied by a self-protective focus, whereas adolescents are motivated to consume highly informative feedback, even if negative.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Erik K. Kastman
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain
Science, Harvard University
| | | | - Abigail M. Stark
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain
Science, Harvard University
| | - Patrick Mair
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain
Science, Harvard University
| | - Leah H. Somerville
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain
Science, Harvard University
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12
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Kaskan PM, Nicholas MA, Dean AM, Murray EA. Attention to Stimuli of Learned versus Innate Biological Value Relies on Separate Neural Systems. J Neurosci 2022; 42:9242-9252. [PMID: 36319119 PMCID: PMC9761678 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0925-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 09/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The neural bases of attention, a set of neural processes that promote behavioral selection, is a subject of intense investigation. In humans, rewarded cues influence attention, even when those cues are irrelevant to the current task. Because the amygdala plays a role in reward processing, and the activity of amygdala neurons has been linked to spatial attention, we reasoned that the amygdala may be essential for attending to rewarded images. To test this possibility, we used an attentional capture task, which provides a quantitative measure of attentional bias. Specifically, we compared reaction times (RTs) of adult male rhesus monkeys with bilateral amygdala lesions and unoperated controls as they made a saccade away from a high- or low-value rewarded image to a peripheral target. We predicted that: (1) RTs will be longer for high- compared with low-value images, revealing attentional capture by rewarded stimuli; and (2) relative to controls, monkeys with amygdala lesions would exhibit shorter RT for high-value images. For comparison, we assessed the same groups of monkeys for attentional capture by images of predators and conspecifics, categories thought to have innate biological value. In performing the attentional capture task, all monkeys were slowed more by high-value relative to low-value rewarded images. Contrary to our prediction, amygdala lesions failed to disrupt this effect. When presented with images of predators and conspecifics, however, monkeys with amygdala lesions showed significantly diminished attentional capture relative to controls. Thus, separate neural pathways are responsible for allocating attention to stimuli with learned versus innate value.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Valuable objects attract attention. The amygdala is known to contribute to reward processing and the encoding of object reward value. We therefore examined whether the amygdala is necessary for allocating attention to rewarded objects. For comparison, we assessed the amygdala's contribution to attending to objects with innate biological value: predators and conspecifics. We found that the macaque amygdala is necessary for directing attention to images with innate biological value, but not for directing attention to recently learned reward-predictive images. These findings indicate that the amygdala makes selective contributions to attending to valuable objects. The data are relevant to mental health disorders, such as social anxiety disorders and small animal phobias, that arise from biased attention to select categories of objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M Kaskan
- Leo M. Davidoff Department of Neurological Surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461
| | - Mark A Nicholas
- Section on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Aaron M Dean
- Section on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Elisabeth A Murray
- Section on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
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13
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Eye gaze and visual attention as a window into leadership and followership: A review of empirical insights and future directions. THE LEADERSHIP QUARTERLY 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2022.101654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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14
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Jiang Y, Sheng F, Belkaya N, Platt ML. Oxytocin and testosterone administration amplify viewing preferences for sexual images in male rhesus macaques. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210133. [PMID: 35858095 PMCID: PMC9272140 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Social stimuli, like faces, and sexual stimuli, like genitalia, spontaneously attract visual attention in both human and non-human primates. Social orienting behaviour is thought to be modulated by neuropeptides as well as sex hormones. Using a free viewing task in which paired images of monkey faces and anogenital regions were presented simultaneously, we found that male rhesus macaques overwhelmingly preferred to view images of anogenital regions over faces. They were more likely to make an initial gaze shift towards, and spent more time viewing, anogenital regions compared with faces, and this preference was accompanied by relatively constricted pupils. On face images, monkeys mostly fixated on the forehead and eyes. These viewing preferences were found for images of both males and females. Both oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide linked to social bonding and affiliation, and testosterone (TE), a sex hormone implicated in mating and aggression, amplified the pre-existing orienting bias for female genitalia over female faces; neither treatment altered the viewing preference for male anogenital regions over male faces. Testosterone but not OT increased the probability of monkeys making the first gaze shift towards female anogenital rather than face pictures, with the strongest effects on anogenital images of young and unfamiliar females. Finally, both OT and TE promoted viewing of the forehead region of both female and male faces, which display sexual skins, but decreased the relative salience of the eyes of older males. Together, these results invite the hypothesis that both OT and TE regulate reproductive behaviours by acting as a gain control on the visual orienting network to increase attention to mating-relevant signals in the environment. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interplays between oxytocin and other neuromodulators in shaping complex social behaviours’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaoguang Jiang
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Feng Sheng
- Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- School of Management and MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science & Brain–Machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China
| | - Naz Belkaya
- Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Lisbon, 1400-038, Portugal
| | - Michael L. Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Marketing Department, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
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15
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Sculley J, Watkins CD. The Great Porn Experiment V2.0: Sexual Arousal Reduces the Salience of Familiar Women When Heterosexual Men Judge Their Attractiveness. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2022; 51:3071-3082. [PMID: 35790609 PMCID: PMC9363392 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-022-02317-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2021] [Revised: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Pornography has become widely accessible in recent years due to its integration with the Internet, generating social scientific and moralistic debate on potential "media effects," given correlations between consumption and various sexual traits and behaviors. One popular public debate (Wilson, 2012) claimed that exposure to Internet pornography has addictive qualities that could impact men's sexual relationships, underpinned by the "Coolidge effect," where males are sexually motivated by the presence of novel mates. As claims about Internet and sexual addictions are scientifically controversial, we provide a direct experimental test of his proposal. Adapting a paradigm used to examine "Coolidge-like" effects in men, we examined the extent to which exposure to images of pornographic actresses altered men's attractiveness ratings of (1) familiar faces/bodies on second viewing and (2) familiar versus novel women's faces/bodies. Independent of slideshow content (pornographic versus clothed versions of same actress), heterosexual men were less attracted to familiar bodies, and homosexual men were less attracted to familiar women (faces and bodies), suggesting that mere visual exposure to attractive women moderated men's preferences. However, consistent with one of our preregistered predictions, heterosexual but not homosexual men's preferences for familiar versus novel women were moderated by slideshow content such that familiar women were less salient on the attractiveness dimension compared to novel women when sexual arousal was greater (pornographic versus clothed slideshows). In sum, our findings demonstrate that visual exposure/sexual arousal moderates attractiveness perceptions, albeit that much greater nuance is required considering earlier claims.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan Sculley
- Division of Psychology and Forensic Sciences, Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee, DD11HG, UK
| | - Christopher D Watkins
- Division of Psychology and Forensic Sciences, Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee, DD11HG, UK.
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16
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Lewis LS, Krupenye C. Eye-tracking as a window into primate social cognition. Am J Primatol 2022; 84:e23393. [PMID: 35635515 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2021] [Revised: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Over the past decade, noninvasive, restraint-free eye-tracking research with primates has transformed our understanding of primate social cognition. The use of this technology with many primate species allows for the exploration and comparison of how these species attend to and understand social agents and interactions. The ability to compare and contrast the cognitive capacities of various primate species, including humans, provides insight into the evolutionary mechanisms and selective pressures that have likely shaped social cognition in similar and divergent ways across the primate order. In this review, we begin by discussing noninvasive behavioral methods used to measure primate gaze and attention before the introduction of noninvasive, restraint-free eye-tracking methodologies. Next, we focus on findings from recent eye-tracking research on primate social cognition, beginning with simple visual and search mechanisms. We then discuss the results that have built on this basic understanding of how primates view images and videos, exploring discrimination and knowledge of social agents, following social cues, tracking perspectives and predicting behavior, and the combination of eye-tracking and other behavioral and physiological methods. Finally, we discuss some future directions of noninvasive eye-tracking research on primate social cognition and current eye-tracking work-in-progress that builds on these previous studies, investigating underexplored socio-cognitive capacities and utilizing new methodologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura S Lewis
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Christopher Krupenye
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK
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17
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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Tardiff CT, Koele EA, Kumar S, Messinger A, Ungerleider LG. The cortical and subcortical correlates of face pareidolia in the macaque brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:965-976. [PMID: 35445247 PMCID: PMC9629476 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 03/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Face detection is a foundational social skill for primates. This vital function is thought to be supported by specialized neural mechanisms; however, although several face-selective regions have been identified in both humans and nonhuman primates, there is no consensus about which region(s) are involved in face detection. Here, we used naturally occurring errors of face detection (i.e. objects with illusory facial features referred to as examples of 'face pareidolia') to identify regions of the macaque brain implicated in face detection. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging to test awake rhesus macaques, we discovered that a subset of face-selective patches in the inferior temporal cortex, on the lower lateral edge of the superior temporal sulcus, and the amygdala respond more to objects with illusory facial features than matched non-face objects. Multivariate analyses of the data revealed differences in the representation of illusory faces across the functionally defined regions of interest. These differences suggest that the cortical and subcortical face-selective regions contribute uniquely to the detection of facial features. We conclude that face detection is supported by a multiplexed system in the primate brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Correspondence should be addressed to Jessica Taubert, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Building 24A, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. E-mail:
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Clarissa T Tardiff
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Elissa A Koele
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Susheel Kumar
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Adam Messinger
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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18
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Dwortz MF, Curley JP, Tye KM, Padilla-Coreano N. Neural systems that facilitate the representation of social rank. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200444. [PMID: 35000438 PMCID: PMC8743891 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Across species, animals organize into social dominance hierarchies that serve to decrease aggression and facilitate survival of the group. Neuroscientists have adopted several model organisms to study dominance hierarchies in the laboratory setting, including fish, reptiles, rodents and primates. We review recent literature across species that sheds light onto how the brain represents social rank to guide socially appropriate behaviour within a dominance hierarchy. First, we discuss how the brain responds to social status signals. Then, we discuss social approach and avoidance learning mechanisms that we propose could drive rank-appropriate behaviour. Lastly, we discuss how the brain represents memories of individuals (social memory) and how this may support the maintenance of unique individual relationships within a social group. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madeleine F. Dwortz
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - James P. Curley
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Kay M. Tye
- Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Nancy Padilla-Coreano
- Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, FN 32611, USA
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19
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Karayanni M, Nelken I. Extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards, and non-optimal behavior. J Comput Neurosci 2022; 50:139-143. [PMID: 35122189 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-022-00813-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Revised: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The optimality of behavior in experimental settings is usually determined with respect to an extrinsic reward defined by the experimenters. However, actions that do not lead to reward are ubiquitous in many species and in many experimental paradigms. Modern research on decision processes commonly treat non-optimal behaviors as noise, often excluding from analysis animals that do not reach behavioral performance criteria. However, non-optimal behaviors can be a window on important brain processes. Here we explore the evidence that non-optimal behaviors are the consequence of intrinsically motivated actions, related to drives that are different from that of obtaining extrinsic reward. One way of operationally characterizing these drives is by postulating intrinsic rewards associated with them. Behaviors that are apparently non-optimal can be interpreted as the consequence of optimal decisions whose goal is to optimize a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. We review intrinsic rewards that have been discussed in the literature, and suggest ways of testing their existence and role in shaping animal behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mousa Karayanni
- Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
| | - Israel Nelken
- Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.,Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
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20
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Murray EA, Fellows LK. Prefrontal cortex interactions with the amygdala in primates. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:163-179. [PMID: 34446829 PMCID: PMC8616954 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01128-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
This review addresses functional interactions between the primate prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala, with emphasis on their contributions to behavior and cognition. The interplay between these two telencephalic structures contributes to adaptive behavior and to the evolutionary success of all primate species. In our species, dysfunction in this circuitry creates vulnerabilities to psychopathologies. Here, we describe amygdala-PFC contributions to behaviors that have direct relevance to Darwinian fitness: learned approach and avoidance, foraging, predator defense, and social signaling, which have in common the need for flexibility and sensitivity to specific and rapidly changing contexts. Examples include the prediction of positive outcomes, such as food availability, food desirability, and various social rewards, or of negative outcomes, such as threats of harm from predators or conspecifics. To promote fitness optimally, these stimulus-outcome associations need to be rapidly updated when an associative contingency changes or when the value of a predicted outcome changes. We review evidence from nonhuman primates implicating the PFC, the amygdala, and their functional interactions in these processes, with links to experimental work and clinical findings in humans where possible.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lesley K Fellows
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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21
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Fonn EK, Zahl JH, Thomsen L. The boss is not always right: Norwegian preschoolers do not selectively endorse the testimony of a novel dominant agent. Child Dev 2021; 93:831-844. [PMID: 34958120 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Theories of cultural evolution posit that cues of competence-based prestige, rather than formidability-based dominance, should guide culturally transmitted learning, but recent work suggested that French and Kaqchikel Guatamalan preschoolers place their epistemic trust in dominant others. In contrast, this study shows that 249 three- to six-year-olds (116 girls, tested between 2016 and 2018 across metropolitan locations with varying ethnic composition and socioeconomic status) randomly endorsed the word-labels of dominant and subordinate agents in the egalitarian culture of Norway, using stimuli which solicit dominance inferences among infants and manipulating anonymity across studies to control for egalitarian desirability bias. A meta-analysis estimated that 48% endorsed the dominant's testimony. This demonstrates that the tendency to endorse the epistemic claims of dominant individuals does not emerge reliably in early childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik Kjos Fonn
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Lotte Thomsen
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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22
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Li S, Krueger F, Camilleri JA, Eickhoff SB, Qu C. The neural signatures of social hierarchy-related learning and interaction: A coordinate- and connectivity-based meta-analysis. Neuroimage 2021; 245:118731. [PMID: 34788662 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Revised: 10/17/2021] [Accepted: 11/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerous neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of two mutually independent yet closely related cognitive processes aiding humans to navigate complex societies: social hierarchy-related learning (SH-RL) and social hierarchy-related interaction (SH-RI). To integrate these heterogeneous results into a more fine-grained and reliable characterization of the neural basis of social hierarchy, we combined coordinate-based meta-analyses with connectivity and functional decoding analyses to understand the underlying neuropsychological mechanism of SH-RL and SH-RI. We identified the anterior insula and temporoparietal junction (dominance detection), medial prefrontal cortex (information updating and computation), and intraparietal sulcus region, amygdala, and hippocampus (social hierarchy representation) as consistent activated brain regions for SH-RL, but the striatum, amygdala, and hippocampus associated with reward processing for SH-RI. Our results provide an overview of the neural architecture of the neuropsychological processes underlying how we understand, and interact within, social hierarchy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siying Li
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631 China
| | - Frank Krueger
- School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States; Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States
| | - Julia A Camilleri
- Research Center Jülich, Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Germany; Medical Faculty, Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Simon B Eickhoff
- Research Center Jülich, Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Germany; Medical Faculty, Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Chen Qu
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631 China.
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23
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Báez-Mendoza R, Mastrobattista EP, Wang AJ, Williams ZM. Social agent identity cells in the prefrontal cortex of interacting groups of primates. Science 2021; 374:eabb4149. [PMID: 34672743 DOI: 10.1126/science.abb4149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
[Figure: see text].
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Affiliation(s)
- Raymundo Báez-Mendoza
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Emma P Mastrobattista
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Amy J Wang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Ziv M Williams
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.,Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA 02115, USA.,Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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24
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Báez-Mendoza R, Vázquez Y, Mastrobattista EP, Williams ZM. Neuronal Circuits for Social Decision-Making and Their Clinical Implications. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:720294. [PMID: 34658766 PMCID: PMC8517320 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.720294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Social living facilitates individual access to rewards, cognitive resources, and objects that would not be otherwise accessible. There are, however, some drawbacks to social living, particularly when competing for scarce resources. Furthermore, variability in our ability to make social decisions can be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. The neuronal mechanisms underlying social decision-making are beginning to be understood. The momentum to study this phenomenon has been partially carried over by the study of economic decision-making. Yet, because of the similarities between these different types of decision-making, it is unclear what is a social decision. Here, we propose a definition of social decision-making as choices taken in a context where one or more conspecifics are involved in the decision or the consequences of it. Social decisions can be conceptualized as complex economic decisions since they are based on the subjective preferences between different goods. During social decisions, individuals choose based on their internal value estimate of the different alternatives. These are complex decisions given that conspecifics beliefs or actions could modify the subject's internal valuations at every choice. Here, we first review recent developments in our collective understanding of the neuronal mechanisms and circuits of social decision-making in primates. We then review literature characterizing populations with neuropsychiatric disorders showing deficits in social decision-making and the underlying neuronal circuitries associated with these deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raymundo Báez-Mendoza
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Yuriria Vázquez
- Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Emma P. Mastrobattista
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Ziv M. Williams
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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25
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The application of noninvasive, restraint-free eye-tracking methods for use with nonhuman primates. Behav Res Methods 2021; 53:1003-1030. [PMID: 32935327 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-020-01465-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Over the past 50 years there has been a strong interest in applying eye-tracking techniques to study a myriad of questions related to human and nonhuman primate psychological processes. Eye movements and fixations can provide qualitative and quantitative insights into cognitive processes of nonverbal populations such as nonhuman primates, clarifying the evolutionary, physiological, and representational underpinnings of human cognition. While early attempts at nonhuman primate eye tracking were relatively crude, later, more sophisticated and sensitive techniques required invasive protocols and the use of restraint. In the past decade, technology has advanced to a point where noninvasive eye-tracking techniques, developed for use with human participants, can be applied for use with nonhuman primates in a restraint-free manner. Here we review the corpus of recent studies (N=32) that take such an approach. Despite the growing interest in eye-tracking research, there is still little consensus on "best practices," both in terms of deploying test protocols or reporting methods and results. Therefore, we look to advances made in the field of developmental psychology, as well as our own collective experiences using eye trackers with nonhuman primates, to highlight key elements that researchers should consider when designing noninvasive restraint-free eye-tracking research protocols for use with nonhuman primates. Beyond promoting best practices for research protocols, we also outline an ideal approach for reporting such research and highlight future directions for the field.
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26
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Putnam PT, Chang SWC. Toward a holistic view of value and social processing in the amygdala: Insights from primate behavioral neurophysiology. Behav Brain Res 2021; 411:113356. [PMID: 33989727 PMCID: PMC8238892 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2021] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Located medially within the temporal lobes, the amygdala is a formation of heterogenous nuclei that has emerged as a target for investigations into the neural bases of both primitive and complex behaviors. Although modern neuroscience has eschewed the practice of assigning broad functions to distinct brain regions, the amygdala has classically been associated with regulating negative emotional processes (such as fear or aggression), primarily through research performed in rodent models. Contemporary studies, particularly those in non-human primate models, have provided evidence for a role of the amygdala in other aspects of cognition such as valuation of stimuli or shaping social behaviors. Consequently, many modern perspectives now also emphasize the amygdala's role in processing positive affect and social behaviors. Importantly, several recent experiments have examined the intersection of two seemingly autonomous domains; how both valence/value and social stimuli are simultaneously represented in the amygdala. Results from these studies suggest that there is an overlap between valence/value processing and the processing of social behaviors at the level of single neurons. These findings have prompted researchers investigating the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying social interactions to question what contributions reward-related processes in the amygdala make in shaping social behaviors. In this review, we will examine evidence, primarily from primate neurophysiology, suggesting that value-related processes in the amygdala interact with the processing of social stimuli, and explore holistic hypotheses about how these amygdalar interactions might be instantiated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip T Putnam
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States.
| | - Steve W C Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States
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27
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Molapour T, Hagan CC, Silston B, Wu H, Ramstead M, Friston K, Mobbs D. Seven computations of the social brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:745-760. [PMID: 33629102 PMCID: PMC8343565 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2019] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and nonverbal signals and involve multiple cognitive systems, including memory, attention, emotion and learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently-from multiple modalities-when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human-social interaction. These include (i) social perception; (ii) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (iii) social learning; (iv) social signaling through verbal and nonverbal cues; (v) social drives (e.g. how to increase one's status); (vi) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself and (vii) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanaz Molapour
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Brian Silston
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Haiyan Wu
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10010, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10010 China
| | - Maxwell Ramstead
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A2, Canada
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A2, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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28
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Wolf C, Lappe M. Vision as oculomotor reward: cognitive contributions to the dynamic control of saccadic eye movements. Cogn Neurodyn 2021; 15:547-568. [PMID: 34367360 PMCID: PMC8286912 DOI: 10.1007/s11571-020-09661-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 12/12/2020] [Accepted: 12/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans and other primates are equipped with a foveated visual system. As a consequence, we reorient our fovea to objects and targets in the visual field that are conspicuous or that we consider relevant or worth looking at. These reorientations are achieved by means of saccadic eye movements. Where we saccade to depends on various low-level factors such as a targets' luminance but also crucially on high-level factors like the expected reward or a targets' relevance for perception and subsequent behavior. Here, we review recent findings how the control of saccadic eye movements is influenced by higher-level cognitive processes. We first describe the pathways by which cognitive contributions can influence the neural oculomotor circuit. Second, we summarize what saccade parameters reveal about cognitive mechanisms, particularly saccade latencies, saccade kinematics and changes in saccade gain. Finally, we review findings on what renders a saccade target valuable, as reflected in oculomotor behavior. We emphasize that foveal vision of the target after the saccade can constitute an internal reward for the visual system and that this is reflected in oculomotor dynamics that serve to quickly and accurately provide detailed foveal vision of relevant targets in the visual field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Wolf
- Institute for Psychology, University of Muenster, Fliednerstrasse 21, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Markus Lappe
- Institute for Psychology, University of Muenster, Fliednerstrasse 21, 48149 Münster, Germany
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29
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Lewis LS, Kano F, Stevens JMG, DuBois JG, Call J, Krupenye C. Erratum to "Bonobos and chimpanzees preferentially attend to familiar members of the dominant sex" [ Animal Behaviour 177 (2021) 193-206]. Anim Behav 2021. [PMID: 34292277 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.04.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.04.027.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura S Lewis
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.,School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K
| | - Fumihiro Kano
- Kumamoto Sanctuary, Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.,Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Jeroen M G Stevens
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Belgium.,Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Jamie G DuBois
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K.,Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K
| | - Christopher Krupenye
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K.,Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.,Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, U.K
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30
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Food reward derives from nutrient content and sensory qualities. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2109735118. [PMID: 34266961 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2109735118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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31
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Reggev N, Chowdhary A, Mitchell JP. Confirmation of Interpersonal Expectations is Intrinsically Rewarding. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1276-1287. [PMID: 34167150 PMCID: PMC8717061 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2021] [Revised: 04/28/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
People want to interact successfully with other individuals, and they invest significant efforts in attempting to do so. Decades of research have demonstrated that to simplify the dauntingly complex task of interpersonal communication, perceivers predict the responses of individuals in their environment using stereotypes and other sources of prior knowledge. Here, we show that these top-down expectations can also shape the subjective value of expectation-consistent and expectation-violating targets. Specifically, in two neuroimaging experiments (n = 58), we observed increased activation in brain regions associated with reward processing-including the nucleus accumbens-when perceivers observed information consistent with their social expectations. In two additional behavioral experiments (n = 704), we observed that perceivers were willing to forgo money to encounter an expectation-consistent target and avoid an expectation-violating target. Together, these findings suggest that perceivers value having their social expectations confirmed, much like food or monetary rewards.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niv Reggev
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA, 0218. USA.,Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Be'er-Sheva, 84105, Israel.,Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Be'er-Sheva, 84105, Israel
| | - Anoushka Chowdhary
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA, 0218. USA
| | - Jason P Mitchell
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA, 0218. USA
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32
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Testard C, Tremblay S, Platt M. From the field to the lab and back: neuroethology of primate social behavior. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2021; 68:76-83. [PMID: 33567386 PMCID: PMC8243779 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2021.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Revised: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Social mammals with more numerous and stronger social relationships live longer, healthier lives. Despite the established importance of social relationships, our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms by which they are pursued, formed, and maintained in primates remains largely confined to highly controlled laboratory settings which do not allow natural, dynamic social interactions to unfold. In this review, we argue that the neurobiological study of primate social behavior would benefit from adopting a neuroethological approach, that is, a perspective grounded in natural, species-typical behavior, with careful selection of animal models according to the scientific question at hand. We highlight macaques and marmosets as key animal models for human social behavior and summarize recent findings in the social domain for both species. We then review pioneering studies of dynamic social behaviors in small animals, which can inspire studies in larger primates where the technological landscape is now ripe for an ethological overhaul.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Testard
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - Sébastien Tremblay
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Michael Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Psychology Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Marketing Department, The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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33
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Cui Q, Wang Z, Zhang Z, Li Y. The East Asian Erotic Picture Dataset and Gender Differences in Response to Opposite-Sex Erotic Stimuli in Chinese College Students. Front Psychol 2021; 12:648271. [PMID: 33967908 PMCID: PMC8096987 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2020] [Accepted: 03/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the processing of sexual stimuli has become a significant part of research on human sexuality. In addition to individual characteristics (gender and sexual orientation), empirical studies have shown that cultural factors play an important role in sexual stimuli processing. The attitudes toward sex have been reported to be more conservative in East Asian societies as compared to western countries, and significantly more sexual difficulties are observed among East Asian people. However, stimulus materials, which potentially facilitate human sexuality research on native East Asian people, are relatively not satisfactory. Erotic stimuli depicting East Asian figures are limited in the existing picture datasets. To address this issue, we present a collection of 237 erotic and 108 control pictures, accompanied by self-reported ratings of sexual arousal, pleasantness, and sexual attractiveness for opposite-sex erotic stimuli by heterosexual males and females (n = 40, divided into two equal-sized subsamples). This collection is divided into six categories, depending on their contents: dressed males (44), semi-nude males (65), nude males (64), dressed females (64), semi-nude females (52), and nude females (56). We showed gender differences in sexual arousal, pleasantness, and sexual attractiveness ratings in response to opposite-sex erotic pictures. Males reported the highest levels of sexual arousal, pleasantness, and sexual attractiveness for nude female pictures, whereas females reported the highest levels of sexual arousal, pleasantness, and sexual attractiveness for semi-nude male pictures. The erotic picture dataset may provide a useful resource of erotic stimuli that can be used as stimulus materials in experimental research on sexual function in East Asians.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianqian Cui
- Reward, Competition and Social Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Zixiang Wang
- Reward, Competition and Social Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Ziyuan Zhang
- Department of Applied Foreign Language Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yansong Li
- Reward, Competition and Social Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.,Institute for Brain Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
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34
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Quesque F, Foncelle A, Barat E, Chabanat E, Rossetti Y, Van der Henst JB. Sympathy for the underdog: people are inclined to adopt the emotional perspective of powerless (versus powerful) others. Cogn Emot 2021; 35:902-917. [PMID: 33724158 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1902282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Upon learning of the story of Cinderella, most people spontaneously adopt the emotional perspective of this helpless young woman rather than of her older sisters who oppress her. The present research examines whether this pattern reveals a general human tendency to empathise more with the emotions of individuals with low (versus high) power. Six experiments (N = 878) examined how power influences the focus of people's emotional attributions. Participants were presented with situations in which one character exercised power over another one and had to resolve a referential ambiguity by considering the perspective of one or the other character. Results show that participants largely privileged the emotional states of the low-power character over those of the high-power character. This effect was observed with different types of stimuli (comics and video clips), with high- and low-power roles attributed to pairs of different genders (Experiments 1-4) or same gender (Experiments 5-6). Finally, the tendency persisted - though it was reduced - when participants adopted a less passive role with respect to the characters (Experiment 3) and when power occurred in a less despotic way (Experiment 6). Results are discussed with respect to social attention and sensitivity to fairness.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Quesque
- Trajectoires Team, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Inserm UMR-S 1028,CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France.,Plateforme "Mouvement et Handicap" and Plateforme NeuroImmersion, Hôpital Henry-Gabrielle, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Saint-Genis-Laval, France
| | - Alexandre Foncelle
- Trajectoires Team, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Inserm UMR-S 1028,CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France.,Plateforme "Mouvement et Handicap" and Plateforme NeuroImmersion, Hôpital Henry-Gabrielle, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Saint-Genis-Laval, France
| | - Elodie Barat
- Trajectoires Team, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Inserm UMR-S 1028,CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France
| | - Eric Chabanat
- Trajectoires Team, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Inserm UMR-S 1028,CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France.,Plateforme "Mouvement et Handicap" and Plateforme NeuroImmersion, Hôpital Henry-Gabrielle, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Saint-Genis-Laval, France
| | - Yves Rossetti
- Trajectoires Team, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Inserm UMR-S 1028,CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France.,Plateforme "Mouvement et Handicap" and Plateforme NeuroImmersion, Hôpital Henry-Gabrielle, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Saint-Genis-Laval, France
| | - Jean-Baptiste Van der Henst
- Trajectoires Team, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Inserm UMR-S 1028,CNRS UMR 5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France
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35
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Noritake A, Ninomiya T, Isoda M. Subcortical encoding of agent-relevant associative signals for adaptive social behavior in the macaque. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 125:78-87. [PMID: 33609569 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2020] [Revised: 01/24/2021] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Primates are group-living creatures that constantly face the challenges posed by complex social demands. To date, the cortical mechanisms underlying social information processing have been the major focus of attention. However, emerging evidence suggests that subcortical regions also mediate the collection and processing of information from other agents. Here, we review the literature supporting the hypothesis that behavioral variables important for decision-making, i.e., stimulus, action, and outcome, are associated with agent information (self and other) in subcortical regions, such as the amygdala, striatum, lateral hypothalamus, and dopaminergic midbrain nuclei. Such self-relevant and other-relevant associative signals are then integrated into a social utility signal, presumably at the level of midbrain dopamine neurons. This social utility signal allows decision makers to organize their optimal behavior in accordance with social demands. Determining how self-relevant and other-relevant signals might be altered in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders will be fundamental to better understand how social behaviors are dysregulated in disease conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atsushi Noritake
- Division of Behavioral Development, Department of System Neuroscience, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 38 Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8585, Japan; Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0193, Japan
| | - Taihei Ninomiya
- Division of Behavioral Development, Department of System Neuroscience, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 38 Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8585, Japan; Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0193, Japan
| | - Masaki Isoda
- Division of Behavioral Development, Department of System Neuroscience, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 38 Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8585, Japan; Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0193, Japan.
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36
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Sallet J, Emberton A, Wood J, Rushworth M. Impact of internal and external factors on prosocial choices in rhesus macaques. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20190678. [PMID: 33423628 PMCID: PMC7815427 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
While traditional economic models assume that agents are self-interested, humans and most non-human primates are social species. Therefore, many of decisions they make require the integration of information about other social agents. This study asks to what extent information about social status and the social context in which decisions are taken impact on reward-guided decisions in rhesus macaques. We tested 12 monkeys of varying dominance status in several experimental versions of a two-choice task in which reward could be delivered to self only, only another monkey, both the self and another monkey, or neither. Results showed dominant animals were more prone to make prosocial choices than subordinates, but only when the decision was between a reward for self only and a reward for both self and other. If the choice was between a reward for self only and a reward for other only, no animal expressed altruistic behaviour. Finally, prosocial choices were true social decisions as they were strikingly reduced when the social partner was replaced by a non-social object. These results showed that as in humans, rhesus macaques' social decisions are adaptive and modulated by social status and the cost associated with being prosocial. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jérôme Sallet
- Wellcome Integrative Neuroimaging Centre, Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford, OX1 3SR, UK.,Univ Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Inserm, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute U1208, Bron, France
| | - Andrew Emberton
- Biomedical Sciences Services, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SR, UK
| | - Jessica Wood
- Biomedical Sciences Services, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SR, UK
| | - Matthew Rushworth
- Wellcome Integrative Neuroimaging Centre, Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford, OX1 3SR, UK
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37
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Adams GK, Ong WS, Pearson JM, Watson KK, Platt ML. Neurons in primate prefrontal cortex signal valuable social information during natural viewing. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20190666. [PMID: 33423624 PMCID: PMC7815429 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Information about social partners is innately valuable to primates. Decisions about which sources of information to consume are highly naturalistic but also complex and place unusually strong demands on the brain's decision network. In particular, both the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) play key roles in decision making and social behaviour, suggesting a likely role in social information-seeking as well. To test this idea, we developed a 'channel surfing' task in which monkeys were shown a series of 5 s video clips of conspecifics engaged in natural behaviours at a field site. Videos were annotated frame-by-frame using an ethogram of species-typical behaviours, an important source of social information. Between each clip, monkeys were presented with a choice between targets that determined which clip would be seen next. Monkeys' gaze during playback indicated differential engagement depending on what behaviours were presented. Neurons in both OFC and LPFC responded to choice targets and to video, and discriminated a subset of the behaviours in the ethogram during video viewing. These findings suggest that both OFC and LPFC are engaged in processing social information that is used to guide dynamic information-seeking decisions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geoffrey K Adams
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Wei Song Ong
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - John M Pearson
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Karli K Watson
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Michael L Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,Marketing Department, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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38
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Ostner J, Wilken J, Schülke O. Social contagion of affiliation in female macaques. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:201538. [PMID: 33614085 PMCID: PMC7890474 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Social contagion of non-interactive behaviour is widespread among animals including humans. It is thought to facilitate behavioural synchronization and consequently group cohesion, coordination and opportunities for social learning. Contagion of interactive behaviour-particularly affiliation-has received much less attention. Here, we investigated in female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) the effect of observing group members groom on a subject's subsequent grooming behaviour and the potential modulation of contagion by relationship quality and social status. We recorded behaviour after subjects witnessed a grooming event and compared it to behaviour in a control condition with the same individuals in proximity but in the absence of a stimulus grooming event. Compared to the control condition, after observing others groom, females engaged in a grooming interaction sooner, and were more likely to be the initiator and to take on the active groomer role. Dominance rank of the focal individual and more weakly also of the stimulus individuals affected the latency to the next grooming interaction of the focal subject. Latency to the next grooming interaction decreased with increasing rank of the subject potentially reflecting lower social constraints faced by high ranking individuals in this highly despotic species. Relationship quality between the subject and the stimulus individuals had no effect on latency to grooming. Collectively, our findings provide evidence for visual contagion of affiliation in rhesus macaques. Future studies should explore the systematic variation in contagion of interactive behaviour in relation to a gradient of social tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Ostner
- Department Behavioral Ecology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
- Primate Social Evolution Group, German Primate Centre, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Jana Wilken
- Department Behavioral Ecology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Oliver Schülke
- Department Behavioral Ecology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
- Primate Social Evolution Group, German Primate Centre, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany
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39
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Ong WS, Madlon-Kay S, Platt ML. Neuronal correlates of strategic cooperation in monkeys. Nat Neurosci 2021; 24:116-128. [PMID: 33230321 PMCID: PMC7929784 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-00746-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
We recorded neural activity in male monkeys playing a variant of the game 'chicken' in which they made decisions to cooperate or not cooperate to obtain rewards of different sizes. Neurons in the middle superior temporal sulcus (mSTS)-previously implicated in social perception-signaled strategic information, including payoffs, intentions of the other player, reward outcomes and predictions about the other player. Moreover, a subpopulation of mSTS neurons selectively signaled cooperatively obtained rewards. Neurons in the anterior cingulate gyrus, previously implicated in vicarious reinforcement and empathy, carried less information about strategic variables, especially cooperative reward. Strategic signals were not reducible to perceptual information about the other player or motor contingencies. These findings suggest that the capacity to compute models of other agents has deep roots in the strategic social behavior of primates and that the anterior cingulate gyrus and the mSTS support these computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Song Ong
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Seth Madlon-Kay
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Michael L Platt
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Marketing Department, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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40
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Gökce F, Ehring T, Werner GG, Takano K. Misperception of sleep is associated with intrinsic motivation toward thinking about sleep. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2020; 69:101591. [PMID: 32553998 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2020.101591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Revised: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Misperception of sleep, the underestimation of total sleep time and overestimation of sleep onset latency (SOL) relative to objective measures, is often found in people with sleep disturbances. Theories of insomnia have proposed that perceived sleeplessness triggers excessive intention and effort to sleep, ironically disturbing the normal initiation of sleep. The current study tested this specific association between (mis)perception of sleep and intrinsic motivation to think about sleep. METHODS The sample (n = 74) covered students and community living in Munich and surrounds with ages between 18 and 30 years. We assessed the subjective and objective sleep of participants using a sleep diary and actigraphy. Participants also completed a decision-making task (the pay-per-view task), where they had to decide between thinking about sleep vs. eating. As these options were associated with a variable monetary reward, participants typically experienced a conflict between their preferred topic and the reward for their choice. RESULTS Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that participants with greater SOL misperception (i.e., longer subjective relative to objective SOL) forgo a greater reward for the opportunity to think about sleep. LIMITATIONS The non-clinical nature of our sample may limit the implication of the findings for clinical levels of insomnia. CONCLUSIONS Results support the cognitive model of insomnia, suggesting that perception of sleeplessness is associated with higher intrinsic motivation to engage in sleep-related thinking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feyza Gökce
- Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Leopoldstrasse 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Thomas Ehring
- Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Leopoldstrasse 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Gabriela G Werner
- Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Leopoldstrasse 13, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Keisuke Takano
- Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Leopoldstrasse 13, 80802, Munich, Germany.
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41
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Crawford JL, Yee DM, Hallenbeck HW, Naumann A, Shapiro K, Thompson RJ, Braver TS. Dissociable Effects of Monetary, Liquid, and Social Incentives on Motivation and Cognitive Control. Front Psychol 2020; 11:2212. [PMID: 33013575 PMCID: PMC7509070 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans are social creatures and, as such, can be motivated by aspects of social life (e.g., approval from others) to guide decision-making in everyday contexts. Indeed, a common view is that people may have stronger orientation toward social goals or incentives relative to other incentive modalities, such as food or money. However, current studies have only rarely addressed how social incentives compare to other types of rewards in motivating goal-directed behavior. The current study tested this claim; across two separate experiments, the effects of liquid and social incentives were compared in terms of their subsequent impact on task performance and self-reported affect and motivation. Critically, valenced social incentives offered both ecological validity (short video clips—Experiment 1) and continuity with prior stimuli used in the social reward and motivation literature (static images—Experiment 2) when examining their effect on behavior. Across both studies, the results replicate and extend prior work, demonstrating robust effects of liquid incentives on task performance and self-reported affect and motivation, while also supporting an interpretation of weaker motivational and affective effects for social incentives. These patterns of results highlight the complex and wide-ranging effects of social incentives and call into question the effectiveness of social incentives, relative to other incentive modalities, in motivating behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L Crawford
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Debbie M Yee
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Haijing W Hallenbeck
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Ashton Naumann
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Katherine Shapiro
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Renee J Thompson
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Todd S Braver
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
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42
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Wang D, Ma Y. Oxytocin facilitates valence-dependent valuation of social evaluation of the self. Commun Biol 2020; 3:433. [PMID: 32792516 PMCID: PMC7426917 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01168-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
People are eager to know the self in other’s eyes even with personal costs. However, what drives people costly to know evaluations remains unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis of placing subjective value on knowing social evaluations. To quantify the subjective value, we developed a pay-to-know choice task where individuals trade off profits against knowing social evaluations. Individuals computed independent unknown aversion towards positive and negative social evaluations and placed higher values on knowing social evaluation on positive than negative aspects. Such a valence-dependent valuation of social evaluation was facilitated by oxytocin, a neuropeptide linked to feedback learning and valuation processes, by decreasing values of negative social evaluation. Moreover, individuals scoring high in depression undervalued positive social evaluation, which was normalized by oxytocin. We reveal the psychological and computational processes underlying self-image formation/update and suggest a role of oxytocin in normalizing hypo-valuation of positive social evaluation in depression. Danyang Wang and Yina Ma measure the amount of money participants are willing to forgo for the opportunity to access social or non-social evaluations of the self. They show that subjective values on knowing social evaluation is valence-dependent whereas that on non-social evaluation is valence-insensitive. Moreover, oxytocin contributes to valence-dependent valuation on social evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danyang Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Yina Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
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Wilson VAD, Kade C, Moeller S, Treue S, Kagan I, Fischer J. Macaque Gaze Responses to the Primatar: A Virtual Macaque Head for Social Cognition Research. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1645. [PMID: 32765373 PMCID: PMC7379899 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 06/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Following the expanding use and applications of virtual reality in everyday life, realistic virtual stimuli are of increasing interest in cognitive studies. They allow for control of features such as gaze, expression, appearance, and movement, which may help to overcome limitations of using photographs or video recordings to study social responses. In using virtual stimuli however, one must be careful to avoid the uncanny valley effect, where realistic stimuli can be perceived as eerie, and induce an aversion response. At the same time, it is important to establish whether responses to virtual stimuli mirror responses to depictions of a real conspecific. In the current study, we describe the development of a new virtual monkey head with realistic facial features for experiments with nonhuman primates, the "Primatar." As a first step toward validation, we assessed how monkeys respond to facial images of a prototype of this Primatar compared to images of real monkeys (RMs), and an unrealistic model. We also compared gaze responses between original images and scrambled as well as obfuscated versions of these images. We measured looking time to images in six freely moving long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and gaze exploration behavior in three rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Both groups showed more signs of overt attention to original images than scrambled or obfuscated images. In addition, we found no evidence for an uncanny valley effect; since for both groups, looking times did not differ between real, realistic, or unrealistic images. These results provide important data for further development of our Primatar for use in social cognition studies and more generally for cognitive research with virtual stimuli in nonhuman primates. Future research on the absence of an uncanny valley effect in macaques is needed, to elucidate the roots of this mechanism in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa A. D. Wilson
- Department of Primate Cognition, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Carolin Kade
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Sebastian Moeller
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
- Georg-Elias-Müller Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Stefan Treue
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
- Georg-Elias-Müller Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Igor Kagan
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Julia Fischer
- Department of Primate Cognition, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
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An understanding of third-party friendships in a tolerant macaque. Sci Rep 2020; 10:9777. [PMID: 32555440 PMCID: PMC7300006 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66407-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Complex societies are shaped by social relationships between multiple individuals. The pressure to track these relationships has driven the evolution of social cognition in primates. Importantly, it can be adaptive to track not only personal relationships, but also those established between third-parties. Primates have knowledge about others’ dominance hierarchies and kinship, but we do not know to what extent they also understand friendships. In a playback experiment, Tonkean macaques were presented with simulated conflicts involving third-party female dyads who were established friends or non-friends. Hearing a conflict between friends elicited a stronger behavioural response in listeners (i.e. an increase in looking time) compared to hearing a conflict between non-friends. Conflicts between friends are likely to represent a greater disruption of the social group and structure of the network, and therefore this difference in response may represent an adaptive strategy employed by the macaques to selectively monitor important social interactions in the group. These findings provide evidence that Tonkean macaques (and potentially other primates) can classify the relationships of others based on their degree of friendship and additionally, confirms the important role friendships have within the societies of social primates.
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Basile BM, Schafroth JL, Karaskiewicz CL, Chang SWC, Murray EA. The anterior cingulate cortex is necessary for forming prosocial preferences from vicarious reinforcement in monkeys. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000677. [PMID: 32530910 PMCID: PMC7292358 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
A key feature of most social relationships is that we like seeing good things happen to others. Research has implicated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in attaching value to social outcomes. For example, single neurons in macaque ACC selectively code reward delivery to the self, a partner, both monkeys, or neither monkey. Here, we assessed whether the ACC's contribution to social cognition is causal by testing rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) on a vicarious reinforcement task before and after they sustained ACC lesions. Prior to surgery, actors learned that 3 different visual cues mapped onto 3 distinct reward outcomes: to self ("Self"), to the other monkey ("Other"), or to neither monkey ("Neither"). On each trial, actors saw a cue that predicted one of the 3 juice offers and could accept the offer by making a saccade to a peripheral target or reject the offer by breaking fixation. Preoperatively, all 6 actors displayed prosocial preferences, indicated by their greater tendency to give reward to Other relative to Neither. Half then received selective, bilateral, excitotoxic lesions of the ACC, and the other half served as unoperated controls. After surgery, all monkeys retained the social preferences they had demonstrated with the preoperatively learned cues, but this preference was reduced in the monkeys with ACC lesions. Critically, none of the monkeys in the ACC lesion group acquired social preferences with a new set of cues introduced after surgery. These data indicate that the primate ACC is necessary for acquisition of prosocial preferences from vicarious reinforcement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin M. Basile
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Jamie L. Schafroth
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Chloe L. Karaskiewicz
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Steve W. C. Chang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
- Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
| | - Elisabeth A. Murray
- Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
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Wang A, Payne C, Moss S, Jones WR, Bachevalier J. Early developmental changes in visual social engagement in infant rhesus monkeys. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 43:100778. [PMID: 32510341 PMCID: PMC7271941 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Revised: 02/20/2020] [Accepted: 03/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Impairments in social interaction in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) differ greatly across individuals and vary throughout an individual’s lifetime. Yet, an important marker of ASD in infancy is deviations in social-visual engagement, such as the reliably detectable early deviations in attention to the eyes or to biological movement (Klin et al., 2015). Given the critical nature of these early developmental periods, understanding its neurobehavioral underpinnings by means of a nonhuman primate model will be instrumental to understanding the pathophysiology of ASD. Like humans, rhesus macaques 1) develop in rich and complex social behaviors, 2) progressively develop social skills throughout infancy, and 3) have high similarities with humans in brain anatomy and cognitive functions (Machado and Bachevalier, 2003). In this study, male infant rhesus macaques living with their mothers in complex social groups were eye-tracked longitudinally from birth to 6 months while viewing full-faced videos of unfamiliar rhesus monkeys differing in age and sex. The results indicated a critical period for the refinement of social skills around 4–8 weeks of age in rhesus macaques. Specifically, infant monkeys’ fixation to the eyes shows an inflection in developmental trajectory, increasing from birth to 8 weeks, decreasing slowly to a trough between 14–18 weeks, before increasing again. These results parallel the developmental trajectory of social visual engagement published in human infants (Jones & Klin, 2013) and suggest the presence of a switch in the critical networks supporting these early developing social skills that is highly conserved between rhesus macaque and human infant development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arick Wang
- Yerkes National Primate Research Ctr., Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30329, United States; Dept. of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States.
| | - Christa Payne
- Yerkes National Primate Research Ctr., Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30329, United States
| | - Shannon Moss
- Yerkes National Primate Research Ctr., Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30329, United States
| | - Warren R Jones
- Dept. of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States; Marcus Autism Center, Atlanta, GA, 30329, United States
| | - Jocelyne Bachevalier
- Yerkes National Primate Research Ctr., Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30329, United States; Dept. of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States
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Selective attention for affiliative and agonistic interactions of dominants and close affiliates in macaques. Sci Rep 2020; 10:5962. [PMID: 32249792 PMCID: PMC7136223 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62772-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Monitoring conspecifics is a crucial process in social learning and a building block of social cognition. Selective attention to social stimuli results from interactions of subject and stimulus characteristics with dominance rank often emerging as an important predictor. We extend previous research by providing as stimuli naturally occurring affiliative interactions between group members instead of pictorial or auditory representations of conflicts, and by extending to the affiliative relationship, i.e. social bond, between subject and stimulus instead of just their dominance relations. Our observational data on adult female rhesus macaques support the prediction that subjects pay more attention to affiliative interactions of others than to solitary controls. Exceedingly more attention was paid to conflicts unfolding in the group which can have more prompt and direct consequences than others’ friendly interactions. The valence of the stimulus (affiliative vs. agonistic) affected biases towards individuals dominant over the subject, but not the ubiquitous bias towards close affiliates of the subject. Keeping track of the whereabouts and interactions of key social partners has been proposed as a prerequisite for behavioral coordination among bonded partners. In groups of socially very active monkeys, social attention is gated by both social dominance and social bonding.
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Kiesow H, Dunbar RIM, Kable JW, Kalenscher T, Vogeley K, Schilbach L, Marquand AF, Wiecki TV, Bzdok D. 10,000 social brains: Sex differentiation in human brain anatomy. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:eaaz1170. [PMID: 32206722 PMCID: PMC7080454 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz1170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
In human and nonhuman primates, sex differences typically explain much interindividual variability. Male and female behaviors may have played unique roles in the likely coevolution of increasing brain volume and more complex social dynamics. To explore possible divergence in social brain morphology between men and women living in different social environments, we applied probabilistic generative modeling to ~10,000 UK Biobank participants. We observed strong volume effects especially in the limbic system but also in regions of the sensory, intermediate, and higher association networks. Sex-specific brain volume effects in the limbic system were linked to the frequency and intensity of social contact, such as indexed by loneliness, household size, and social support. Across the processing hierarchy of neural networks, different conditions for social interplay may resonate in and be influenced by brain anatomy in sex-dependent ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Kiesow
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | | | - Joseph W. Kable
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Tobias Kalenscher
- Comparative Psychology, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Kai Vogeley
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine—Cognitive Neuroscience (INM-3), Research Center Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen Strasse, 52428 Jülich, Germany
| | - Leonhard Schilbach
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
- Outpatient and Day Clinic for Disorders of Social Interaction, Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany
| | - Andre F. Marquand
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Neuroimaging, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, UK
| | | | - Danilo Bzdok
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), Aachen, Germany
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Mila-Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, Montreal, Canada
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49
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Facial responses of adult humans during the anticipation and consumption of touch and food rewards. Cognition 2020; 194:104044. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2018] [Revised: 08/04/2019] [Accepted: 08/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
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50
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Boukarras S, Era V, Aglioti SM, Candidi M. Modulation of preference for abstract stimuli following competence-based social status primes. Exp Brain Res 2019; 238:193-204. [PMID: 31832705 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-019-05702-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Accepted: 11/27/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
In the present study, we measured whether competence-related high and low social status attributed to two unknown individuals affects participants' implicit reactivity to abstract stimuli associated to the identity of the same individuals. During a status-inducing procedure, participants were asked to play an interactive game with two (fake) players coded as high vs low status based on their game competence. Before and after the game, a modified version of the Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP) was administered in which the players' faces were used as primes. The evaluation target, as is typical to AMP, was a Chinese ideogram. There were two different presentation timings for the prime image: 75 ms and 17 ms. After the status-inducing procedure, the evaluation targets preceded by the high-status prime (i.e. best player's face) were rated as more pleasant than those preceded by the low-status prime (i.e. worst player's face). This effect was only found, however, for the 75 ms lasting prime. Moreover, explicit ratings of the primes showed that the high-status player was rated as more intelligent, competent and dominant than the low status one. These results indicate that implicit preference and explicit evaluation of unacquainted individuals are rapidly modulated by competence-based social status attribution, thus hinting at the plastic nature of social categorization and, relatedly, the malleability of visual preference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Boukarras
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy. .,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
| | - Vanessa Era
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
| | - Salvatore Maria Aglioti
- IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy. .,Sapienza University of Rome and CNLS@Sapienza Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy.
| | - Matteo Candidi
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
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