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Sacheli LM, Diana L, Ravani A, Beretta S, Bolognini N, Paulesu E. Neuromodulation of the Left Inferior Frontal Cortex Affects Social Monitoring during Motor Interactions. J Cogn Neurosci 2023; 35:1788-1805. [PMID: 37677055 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/09/2023]
Abstract
Motor interactions require observing and monitoring a partner's performance as the interaction unfolds. Studies in monkeys suggest that this form of social monitoring might be mediated by the activity of the ventral premotor cortex (vPMc), a critical brain region in action observation and motor planning. Our previous fMRI studies in humans showed that the left vPMc is indeed recruited during social monitoring, but its causal role is unexplored. In three experiments, we applied online anodal or cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left lateral frontal cortex during a music-like interactive task to test the hypothesis that neuromodulation of the left vPMc affects participants' performance when a partner violates the agent's expectations. Participants played short musical sequences together with a virtual partner by playing one note each in turn-taking. In 50% of the trials, the partner violated the participant's expectations by generating the correct note through an unexpected movement. During sham stimulation, the partner's unexpected behavior led to a slowdown in the participant's performance (observation-induced posterror slowing). A significant interaction with the stimulation type showed that cathodal and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation induced modulation of the observation-induced posterror slowing in opposite directions by reducing or enhancing it, respectively. Cathodal stimulation significantly reduced the effect compared to sham stimulation. No effect of neuromodulation was found when the partner behaved as expected or when the observed violation occurred within a context that was perceptually matched but noninteractive in nature. These results provide evidence for the critical causal role that the left vPMc might play in social monitoring during motor interactions, possibly through the interplay with other brain regions in the posterior medial frontal cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Nadia Bolognini
- University of Milano-Bicocca
- IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano
| | - Eraldo Paulesu
- University of Milano-Bicocca
- IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Italy
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2
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Musco MA, Zazzera E, Paulesu E, Sacheli LM. Error observation as a window on performance monitoring in social contexts? A systematic review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 147:105077. [PMID: 36758826 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105077] [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: 10/27/2022] [Revised: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 02/03/2023] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
Living in a social world requires social monitoring, i.e., the ability to keep track of others' actions and mistakes. Here, we demonstrate the good reliability of the behavioral and neurophysiological indexes ascribed to social monitoring. We also show that no consensus exists on the cognitive bases of this phenomenology and discuss three alternative hypotheses: (i) the direct matching hypothesis, postulating that observed errors are processed through automatic simulation; (ii) the attentional hypothesis, considering errors as unexpected events that take resources away from task processing; and (iii) the goal representation hypothesis, which weighs social error monitoring depending on how relevant the other's task is to the observer's goals. To date, evidence on the role played by factors that could help to disentangle these hypotheses (e.g., the human vs. non-human nature of the actor, the error rate, and the reward context) is insufficient, although the goal representation hypothesis seems to receive more support. Theory-driven experimental designs are needed to enlighten this debate and clarify the role of error monitoring during interactive exchanges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margherita Adelaide Musco
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy.
| | - Elisa Zazzera
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Eraldo Paulesu
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy; IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, via Riccardo Galeazzi 4, 20161 Milano, Italy
| | - Lucia Maria Sacheli
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy.
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Levinson AR, Szenczy A, Nelson BD, Hajcak G, Bernard K. A biomarker of maternal vicarious reward processing and its association with parenting behavior. Biol Psychol 2022; 167:108240. [PMID: 34875364 PMCID: PMC10575693 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108240] [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: 03/11/2021] [Revised: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Parenting styles play a critical role in child well-being, yet the neural bases of parenting behaviors remain nebulous. Understanding the neural processes associated with parenting styles can both clarify etiological mechanisms underlying parenting behaviors and point us toward new targets for intervention. A novel electrocortical biomarker called the observational reward positivity (oRewP) that occurs in response to observing another receive a reward has been linked to self-reported authoritarian parenting behavior. The current study sought to replicate associations between the oRewP and self-reported and observationally-coded parenting in a sample of mothers selected to be at elevated risk for problematic parenting. Self-reported authoritarian parenting was associated with observationally-coded problematic discipline, while no other self-reported parenting scales were associated with observationally-coded scores. We replicated the previously reported association between a blunted oRewP and increased self-reported authoritarian parenting. We additionally found that an attenuated oRewP was associated with greater permissive parenting, and that only the relationship with permissive parenting was conserved after adjusting for other parenting styles and other relevant covariates. We did not find significant associations between the oRewP and observationally-coded parenting. The current findings suggest that the neural process indexed by the oRewP are relevant to parenting behavior. Further research is needed to better understand the discrepancy between self-reported and observed parenting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda R Levinson
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
| | - Aline Szenczy
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Brady D Nelson
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Greg Hajcak
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Kristin Bernard
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
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McPartland JC, Lerner MD, Bhat A, Clarkson T, Jack A, Koohsari S, Matuskey D, McQuaid GA, Su WC, Trevisan DA. Looking Back at the Next 40 Years of ASD Neuroscience Research. J Autism Dev Disord 2021; 51:4333-4353. [PMID: 34043128 PMCID: PMC8542594 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-05095-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
During the last 40 years, neuroscience has become one of the most central and most productive approaches to investigating autism. In this commentary, we assemble a group of established investigators and trainees to review key advances and anticipated developments in neuroscience research across five modalities most commonly employed in autism research: magnetic resonance imaging, functional near infrared spectroscopy, positron emission tomography, electroencephalography, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Broadly, neuroscience research has provided important insights into brain systems involved in autism but not yet mechanistic understanding. Methodological advancements are expected to proffer deeper understanding of neural circuitry associated with function and dysfunction during the next 40 years.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Matthew D Lerner
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Anjana Bhat
- Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Tessa Clarkson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Allison Jack
- Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Sheida Koohsari
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - David Matuskey
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Neurology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Goldie A McQuaid
- Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Wan-Chun Su
- Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
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Albrecht C, Bellebaum C. Disentangling effects of expectancy, accuracy, and empathy on the processing of observed actions. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13883. [PMID: 34196017 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13883] [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: 12/09/2020] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
A number of studies suggest that event-related potential (ERP) components previously associated with error processing might represent expectation violation instead of valence. When observing others, these processes might further be modulated by trait empathy. We suggest that trait empathy modulates expectancy formation and that these expectancies then influence observed response processing as reflected in a frontocentral negative ERP component resembling the previously described observer error-related negativity. We acquired single trial ERPs of participants who observed another person in a true- or false-belief condition answering correctly or erroneously. Additionally, we prompted participants' expectancy in some trials. Using linear mixed model analyses, we found that for low empathy participants, expectations for the false-belief condition decreased throughout the experiment, so that expectations were more pronounced in participants with higher empathy toward the end of the experiment. We also found that single trial expectancy measures derived from regression models of the measured expectancies predicted the amplitude of the frontocentral negative ERP component, and that neither the addition of empathy nor accuracy or trial type (true- or false-belief) led to the explanation of significantly more variance compared with the model just containing expectancy as predictor. These results suggest that empathy modulates the processing of observed responses indirectly via its effect on expectancy of the response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Albrecht
- Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Christian Bellebaum
- Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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van Steensel FJA, Heeman EJ. Anxiety Levels in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis. JOURNAL OF CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIES 2017; 26:1753-1767. [PMID: 28680259 PMCID: PMC5487760 DOI: 10.1007/s10826-017-0687-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
The aim of the current study was to meta-analytically examine whether anxiety levels in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are elevated. A total of 83 articles were selected from a systematic literature search and were included in the meta-analyses. Results demonstrated that children with ASD had higher anxiety levels compared to typically developing children, and this difference increased with IQ. Youth with ASD also tended to have higher anxiety levels compared to clinically referred children, and this difference increased with age. Children with ASD had higher anxiety levels compared to youth with externalizing or developmental problems, but not when compared to youth with internalizing problems. The study findings highlight the importance of more research in order to fully understand the nature and development of anxiety in children with ASD. More specifically, the results suggest that especially high-functioning adolescents with ASD may be at risk for developing anxiety disorders. Therefore, it seems important to carefully follow and monitor children with ASD transcending to adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisca J. A. van Steensel
- Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Research priority area Yield, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, 1018 WS Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Emma J. Heeman
- De Opvoedpoli B.V., Dorpstraat 145, 2712 AG Zoetermeer, Netherlands
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Hüpen P, Groen Y, Gaastra GF, Tucha L, Tucha O. Performance monitoring in autism spectrum disorders: A systematic literature review of event-related potential studies. Int J Psychophysiol 2016; 102:33-46. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2016] [Revised: 03/09/2016] [Accepted: 03/10/2016] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
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de la Asuncion J, Docx L, Morrens M, Sabbe B, de Bruijn ERA. Neurophysiological evidence for diminished monitoring of own, but intact monitoring of other's errors in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 2015; 230:220-6. [PMID: 26354866 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.08.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2015] [Revised: 08/24/2015] [Accepted: 08/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is characterized by social deficits. Correctly monitoring own and others' performance is crucial for efficient social behavior. Deficits in monitoring own performance as reflected in reduced error-related negativity (rERN) amplitudes, have been demonstrated repeatedly in schizophrenia. A similar ERP component (observed ERN; oERN) is elicited when observing others' mistakes. However, possible deficits in monitoring others' performance have never been investigated in schizophrenia. The current ERP-study compared a group of schizophrenia patients (N=22) and healthy controls (N=21) while performing a Simon task and the social Simon task, enabling the investigation of own (rERN) and others' (oERN) performance monitoring. Patients showed slower reaction times, but comparable accuracy and compatibility effects in both tasks. As expected, patients' rERN amplitudes were reduced. Importantly however, oERN amplitudes were comparable between both groups. While monitoring own performance is compromised in schizophrenia, monitoring others' performance seems intact. This divergence between internal and external performance monitoring in patients is in line with studies showing normal neurophysiological responses to negative feedback. The presently found dissociation may improve our understanding of cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying monitoring of own and others' performance and may stimulate treatment development aimed at learning from external rather than internal error information in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lise Docx
- Psychiatric Center Brothers Alexians, Provinciesteenweg 408, 2530 Boechout, Belgium; Psychiatric Center Brothers Alexians, Provinciesteenweg 408, 2530 Boechout, Belgium
| | - Manuel Morrens
- Psychiatric Center Brothers Alexians, Provinciesteenweg 408, 2530 Boechout, Belgium; Psychiatric Center Brothers Alexians, Provinciesteenweg 408, 2530 Boechout, Belgium
| | - Bernard Sabbe
- Psychiatric Center Brothers Alexians, Provinciesteenweg 408, 2530 Boechout, Belgium; University Psychiatric Center, St Norbertushuis, Stationstraat 22c, 2570 Duffel, Belgium
| | - Ellen R A de Bruijn
- Psychiatric Center Brothers Alexians, Provinciesteenweg 408, 2530 Boechout, Belgium; Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands
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