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Huang L, Du F, Huang W, Ren H, Qiu W, Zhang J, Wang Y. Three-stage Dynamic Brain-cognitive Model of Understanding Action Intention Displayed by Human Body Movements. Brain Topogr 2024; 37:1055-1067. [PMID: 38874853 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-024-01061-3] [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: 05/01/2023] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024]
Abstract
The ability to comprehend the intention conveyed through human body movements is crucial for effective interpersonal interactions. If people can't understand the intention behind other individuals' isolated or interactive actions, their actions will become meaningless. Psychologists have investigated the cognitive processes and neural representations involved in understanding action intention, yet a cohesive theoretical explanation remains elusive. Hence, we mainly review existing literature related to neural correlates of action intention, and primarily propose a putative Three-stage Dynamic Brain-cognitive Model of understanding action intention, which involves body perception, action identification and intention understanding. Specifically, at the first stage, body parts/shapes are processed by those brain regions such as extrastriate and fusiform body areas; During the second stage, differentiating observed actions relies on configuring relationships between body parts, facilitated by the activation of the Mirror Neuron System; The last stage involves identifying various intention categories, utilizing the Mentalizing System for recruitment, and different activation patterns concerning the nature of the intentions participants dealing with. Finally, we delves into the clinical practice, like intervention training based on a theoretical model for individuals with autism spectrum disorders who encounter difficulties in interpersonal communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Huang
- Fujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, China.
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
| | - Fangyuan Du
- Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade, Fuzhou, China
| | - Wenxin Huang
- Fujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, China
- School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
| | - Hanlin Ren
- Third People's Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, China
| | - Wenzhen Qiu
- Fujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, China
| | - Jiayi Zhang
- Fujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, China
| | - Yiwen Wang
- The School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China.
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2
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Ponce R, Lupiáñez J, González-García C, Casagrande M, Marotta A. Exploring the spatial interference effects elicited by social and non-social targets: A conditional accuracy function approach. Br J Psychol 2024. [PMID: 39267579 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2024] [Accepted: 08/21/2024] [Indexed: 09/17/2024]
Abstract
Recent studies employing the spatial interference paradigm reveal qualitative differences in congruency effects between gaze and arrow targets. Typically, arrows produce a standard congruency effect (SCE), with faster responses when target direction aligns with its location. Conversely, gaze targets often lead to a reversed congruency effect (RCE), where responses are slower in similar conditions. We explored this dissociation using the Conditional Accuracy Function (CAF) to assess accuracy across reaction time bins. Using a hierarchical linear mixed modelling approach to compare cropped eyes, and full faces as social stimuli, and arrows as non-social stimuli, we synthesized findings from 11 studies, which led to three distinct models. The results showed that with non-social targets, incongruent trials exhibited lower accuracy rates in the first bin than in subsequent bins, while congruent trials maintained stable accuracy throughout the distribution. Conversely, social targets revealed a dissociation within the fastest responses; alongside a general reduction in accuracy for both congruency conditions, congruent trials resulted in even lower accuracy rates than incongruent ones. These results suggest with gaze targets that additional information, perhaps social, in addition to the automatic capture by the irrelevant target location, is being processed during the earlier stages of processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renato Ponce
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- Department of Experimental Psychology & Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Juan Lupiáñez
- Department of Experimental Psychology & Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Carlos González-García
- Department of Experimental Psychology & Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Maria Casagrande
- Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Andrea Marotta
- Department of Experimental Psychology & Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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3
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Di Tella S, Silveri MC, Quaranta D, Caraglia N, Siciliano L, Marra C, Leggio M, Olivito G. The emerging role of the cerebellum in the affective theory of mind in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia. J Neurol 2024:10.1007/s00415-024-12595-8. [PMID: 39105895 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-024-12595-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2024] [Revised: 07/16/2024] [Accepted: 07/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/07/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Di Tella
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Davide Quaranta
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
- Neurology Unit, IRCCS Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli", Rome, Italy
| | - Naike Caraglia
- Neurology Unit, IRCCS Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli", Rome, Italy
| | - Libera Siciliano
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Camillo Marra
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
- Neurology Unit, IRCCS Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli", Rome, Italy
| | - Maria Leggio
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy
- Ataxia Research Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
| | - Giusy Olivito
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.
- Ataxia Research Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
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4
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Zhou X, Wong PCM. Hyperscanning to explore social interaction among autistic minds. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 163:105773. [PMID: 38889594 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2024] [Revised: 06/05/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024]
Abstract
Hyperscanning - the monitoring of brain activity of two or more people simultaneously - has emerged to be a popular tool for assessing neural features of social interaction. This perspective article focuses on hyperscanning studies that use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a technique that is very conducive to studies requiring naturalistic paradigms. In particular, we are interested in neural features that are related to social interaction deficits among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This population has received relatively little attention in research using neuroimaging hyperscanning techniques, compared to neurotypical individuals. The study is outlined as follows. First, we summarize the findings about brain-behavior connections related to autism from previously published fNIRS hyperscanning studies. Then, we propose a preliminary theoretical framework of inter-brain coherence (IBC) with testable hypotheses concerning this population. Finally, we provide two examples of areas of inquiry in which studies could be particularly relevant for social-emotional/behavioral development for autistic children, focusing on intergenerational relationships in family units and learning in classroom settings in mainstream schools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Zhou
- Brain and Mind Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China.
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Brain and Mind Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China; Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China
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5
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Zhou X, Hong X, Wong PCM. Autistic Traits Modulate Social Synchronizations Between School-Aged Children: Insights From Three fNIRS Hyperscanning Experiments. Psychol Sci 2024; 35:840-857. [PMID: 38743614 DOI: 10.1177/09567976241237699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The current study investigated how autistic traits modulate peer interactions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. Across three experiments, we tested the effect of copresence, joint activity, and a tangible goal during cooperative interactions on interbrain coherence (IBC) in school-aged children between 9 and 11 years old. Twenty-three dyads of children watched a video alone or together in Experiment 1, engaged in joint or self-paced book reading in Experiment 2, and pretended to play a Jenga game or played for real in Experiment 3. We found that all three formats of social interactions increased IBC in the frontotemporoparietal networks, which have been reported to support social interaction. Further, our results revealed the shared and unique interbrain connections that were predictive of the lower and higher parent-reported autism-spectrum quotient scores, which indicated child autistic traits. Results from a convergence of three experiments provide the first evidence to date that IBC is modulated by child autistic traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Zhou
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Brain and Mind Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
- National Acoustic Laboratories, Macquarie Park, Australia
| | - Xuancu Hong
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Brain and Mind Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Boch M, Huber L, Lamm C. Domestic dogs as a comparative model for social neuroscience: Advances and challenges. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 162:105700. [PMID: 38710423 PMCID: PMC7616343 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105700] [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: 10/03/2023] [Revised: 03/19/2024] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
Dogs and humans have lived together for thousands of years and share many analogous socio-cognitive skills. Dog neuroimaging now provides insight into the neural bases of these shared social abilities. Here, we summarize key findings from dog fMRI identifying neocortical brain areas implicated in visual social cognition, such as face, body, and emotion perception, as well as action observation in dogs. These findings provide converging evidence that the temporal cortex plays a significant role in visual social cognition in dogs. We further briefly review investigations into the neural base of the dog-human relationship, mainly involving limbic brain regions. We then discuss current challenges in the field, such as statistical power and lack of common template spaces, and how to overcome them. Finally, we argue that the foundation has now been built to investigate and compare the neural bases of more complex socio-cognitive phenomena shared by dogs and humans. This will strengthen and expand the role of the domestic dog as a powerful comparative model species and provide novel insights into the evolutionary roots of social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Boch
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; Department of Cognitive Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria.
| | - Ludwig Huber
- Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna, Vienna 1210, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria
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7
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Salagnon M, d'Errico F, Rigaud S, Mellet E. Assigning a social status from face adornments: an fMRI study. Brain Struct Funct 2024; 229:1103-1120. [PMID: 38546871 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-024-02786-4] [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: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
For at least 150,000 years, the human body has been culturally modified by the wearing of personal ornaments and probably by painting with red pigment. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the brain networks involved in attributing social status from face decorations. Results showed the fusiform gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and salience network were involved in social encoding, categorization, and evaluation. The hippocampus and parahippocampus were activated due to the memory and associative skills required for the task, while the inferior frontal gyrus likely interpreted face ornaments as symbols. Resting-state functional connectivity analysis clarified the interaction between these regions. The study highlights the importance of these neural interactions in the symbolic interpretation of social markers on the human face, which were likely active in early Homo species and intensified with Homo sapiens populations as more complex technologies were developed to culturalize the human face.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Salagnon
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, GIN, France
- Univ. Bordeaux, PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Pessac, France
| | - F d'Errico
- Univ. Bordeaux, PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Pessac, France
- SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - S Rigaud
- Univ. Bordeaux, PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Pessac, France
| | - E Mellet
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, GIN, France.
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8
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Lee Masson H, Chang L, Isik L. Multidimensional neural representations of social features during movie viewing. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae030. [PMID: 38722755 PMCID: PMC11130526 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae030] [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: 11/21/2023] [Revised: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
The social world is dynamic and contextually embedded. Yet, most studies utilize simple stimuli that do not capture the complexity of everyday social episodes. To address this, we implemented a movie viewing paradigm and investigated how everyday social episodes are processed in the brain. Participants watched one of two movies during an MRI scan. Neural patterns from brain regions involved in social perception, mentalization, action observation and sensory processing were extracted. Representational similarity analysis results revealed that several labeled social features (including social interaction, mentalization, the actions of others, characters talking about themselves, talking about others and talking about objects) were represented in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG). The mentalization feature was also represented throughout the theory of mind network, and characters talking about others engaged the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), suggesting that listeners may spontaneously infer the mental state of those being talked about. In contrast, we did not observe the action representations in the frontoparietal regions of the action observation network. The current findings indicate that STG and MTG serve as key regions for social processing, and that listening to characters talk about others elicits spontaneous mental state inference in TPJ during natural movie viewing.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lucy Chang
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 21218, USA
| | - Leyla Isik
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 21218, USA
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9
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Turrini S, Avenanti A. Cerebellum function: The chronometry of social perception. Curr Biol 2024; 34:R340-R343. [PMID: 38714159 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.028] [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: 05/09/2024]
Abstract
The posterior cerebellum is emerging as a key structure for social cognition. A new study causally demonstrates its early involvement during emotion perception and functional connectivity with the posterior superior temporal sulcus, a cortical hub of the social brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Turrini
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia 'Renzo Canestrari', Campus di Cesena, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, 47521 Cesena, Italy
| | - Alessio Avenanti
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia 'Renzo Canestrari', Campus di Cesena, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, 47521 Cesena, Italy; Centro de Investigación en Neuropsicología y Neurosciencias Cognitivas, Universidad Católica Del Maule, 3460000 Talca, Chile.
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10
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Li Z, Wu L, Su K, Wu W, Jing Y, Wu T, Duan W, Yue X, Tong X, Han Y. Coordination as inference in multi-agent reinforcement learning. Neural Netw 2024; 172:106101. [PMID: 38232426 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2024.106101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
The Centralized Training and Decentralized Execution (CTDE) paradigm, where a centralized critic is allowed to access global information during the training phase while maintaining the learned policies executed with only local information in a decentralized way, has achieved great progress in recent years. Despite the progress, CTDE may suffer from the issue of Centralized-Decentralized Mismatch (CDM): the suboptimality of one agent's policy can exacerbate policy learning of other agents through the centralized joint critic. In contrast to centralized learning, the cooperative model that most closely resembles the way humans cooperate in nature is fully decentralized, i.e. Independent Learning (IL). However, there are still two issues that need to be addressed before agents coordinate through IL: (1) how agents are aware of the presence of other agents, and (2) how to coordinate with other agents to improve joint policy under IL. In this paper, we propose an inference-based coordinated MARL method: Deep Motor System (DMS). DMS first presents the idea of individual intention inference where agents are allowed to disentangle other agents from their environment. Secondly, causal inference was introduced to enhance coordination by reasoning each agent's effect on others' behavior. The proposed model was extensively experimented on a series of Multi-Agent MuJoCo and StarCraftII tasks. Results show that the proposed method outperforms independent learning algorithms and the coordination behavior among agents can be learned even without the CTDE paradigm compared to the state-of-the-art baselines including IPPO and HAPPO.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiyuan Li
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
| | - Lijun Wu
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
| | - Kaile Su
- School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
| | - Wei Wu
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, China; Xiangjiang Laboratory, Changsha, China.
| | - Yulin Jing
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
| | - Tong Wu
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
| | - Weiwei Duan
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
| | - Xiaofeng Yue
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
| | - Xiyi Tong
- Pittsburgh Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
| | - Yizhou Han
- Glasgow International College, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
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11
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Gu J, Deng K, Luo X, Ma W, Tang X. Investigating the different mechanisms in related neural activities: a focus on auditory perception and imagery. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae139. [PMID: 38629796 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae139] [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: 01/17/2024] [Revised: 03/17/2024] [Accepted: 03/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies have shown that the neural representation of imagery is closely related to the perception modality; however, the undeniable different experiences between perception and imagery indicate that there are obvious neural mechanism differences between them, which cannot be explained by the simple theory that imagery is a form of weak perception. Considering the importance of functional integration of brain regions in neural activities, we conducted correlation analysis of neural activity in brain regions jointly activated by auditory imagery and perception, and then brain functional connectivity (FC) networks were obtained with a consistent structure. However, the connection values between the areas in the superior temporal gyrus and the right precentral cortex were significantly higher in auditory perception than in the imagery modality. In addition, the modality decoding based on FC patterns showed that the FC network of auditory imagery and perception can be significantly distinguishable. Subsequently, voxel-level FC analysis further verified the distribution regions of voxels with significant connectivity differences between the 2 modalities. This study complemented the correlation and difference between auditory imagery and perception in terms of brain information interaction, and it provided a new perspective for investigating the neural mechanisms of different modal information representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Gu
- School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 999, Xi'an Road, Pidu District, Chengdu, China
- Manufacturing Industry Chains Collaboration and Information Support Technology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, No. 999, Xi'an Road, Pidu District, Chengdu, China
| | - Kexin Deng
- School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 999, Xi'an Road, Pidu District, Chengdu, China
| | - Xiaoqi Luo
- School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 999, Xi'an Road, Pidu District, Chengdu, China
| | - Wanli Ma
- School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 999, Xi'an Road, Pidu District, Chengdu, China
| | - Xuegang Tang
- School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 999, Xi'an Road, Pidu District, Chengdu, China
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12
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Puce A. From Motion to Emotion: Visual Pathways and Potential Interconnections. J Cogn Neurosci 2024:1-24. [PMID: 38527078 PMCID: PMC11416577 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/27/2024]
Abstract
The two visual pathway description of [Ungerleider, L. G., & Mishkin, M. Two cortical visual systems. In D. J. Dingle, M. A. Goodale, & R. J. W. Mansfield (Eds.), Analysis of visual behavior (pp. 549-586). Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1982] changed the course of late 20th century systems and cognitive neuroscience. Here, I try to reexamine our laboratory's work through the lens of the [Pitcher, D., & Ungerleider, L. G. Evidence for a third visual pathway specialized for social perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25, 100-110, 2021] new third visual pathway. I also briefly review the literature related to brain responses to static and dynamic visual displays, visual stimulation involving multiple individuals, and compare existing models of social information processing for the face and body. In this context, I examine how the posterior STS might generate unique social information relative to other brain regions that also respond to social stimuli. I discuss some of the existing challenges we face with assessing how information flow progresses between structures in the proposed functional pathways and how some stimulus types and experimental designs may have complicated our data interpretation and model generation. I also note a series of outstanding questions for the field. Finally, I examine the idea of a potential expansion of the third visual pathway, to include aspects of previously proposed "lateral" visual pathways. Doing this would yield a more general entity for processing motion/action (i.e., "[inter]action") that deals with interactions between people, as well as people and objects. In this framework, a brief discussion of potential hemispheric biases for function, and different forms of neuropsychological impairments created by focal lesions in the posterior brain is highlighted to help situate various brain regions into an expanded [inter]action pathway.
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Wann JP. Processing of complex traffic scenes for effective steering and collision avoidance: a perspective, from research into human control, on the challenges for sensor-based autonomous vehicles on urban roads. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1347309. [PMID: 38505365 PMCID: PMC10948443 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1347309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
An overview is provided of behavioral research into human steering and collision avoidance including the processing of optic flow, optical looming and the role of the human mobile gaze system. A consideration is then made of the issues that may occur for autonomous vehicles (AV) when they move from grid-type road networks into complex inner-city streets and interact with human drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Comparisons between human processing and AV processing of these interactions are made. This raises issues as to whether AV control systems need to mimic human visual processing more closely and highlights the need for AV systems to develop a "theory of road users" that allows attribution of intent to other drivers, cyclists or pedestrians. Guidelines for the development of a "theory of road users" for AVs are suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- John P. Wann
- Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, United Kingdom
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14
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Jiao Z, Song J, Yang X, Chen Y, Han G. Social pain sharing boosts interpersonal brain synchronization in female cooperation. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2024; 243:104138. [PMID: 38237471 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Social pain sharing promotes cooperation, but we still don't know its neural basis. The present study employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning technology to investigate whether interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) increased between females engaging in cooperative activities after a shared experience of social pain. We utilized the Cyberball paradigm, manipulating social pain by regulating the number of catches for the participants. Dyads in the shared social pain (SP) group received passes only at the beginning of the game, whereas dyads in the control (CT) group had the same number of catches as other players. The results indicate that participants in the SP group showed significant IBS in the right superior frontal cortex (r-SFC, p < 0.05) and left middle frontal cortex (l-MFC, p < 0.05), but no channels in the CT group showed significant IBS (p > 0.05). Further analysis revealed that IBS in r-SFC was significantly higher in the SP group compared to the CT group (p < 0.05). Additionally, IBS in r-SFC was positively correlated with the level of cooperation (r = 0.66, p < 0.001). This study elucidates the neural basis of enhanced cooperation facilitated by shared social pain at the interbrain level. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that this study exclusively enrolled female participants. The generalizability of these findings across genders is yet to be confirmed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhibin Jiao
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Juan Song
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China.
| | - Xue Yang
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Yiyue Chen
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Gaoxin Han
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
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Deferm W, Tang T, Moerkerke M, Daniels N, Steyaert J, Alaerts K, Ortibus E, Naulaers G, Boets B. Subtle microstructural alterations in white matter tracts involved in socio-emotional processing after very preterm birth. Neuroimage Clin 2024; 41:103580. [PMID: 38401459 PMCID: PMC10944182 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2024.103580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 02/10/2024] [Accepted: 02/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/26/2024]
Abstract
Children born very preterm (VPT, < 32 weeks of gestation) have an increased risk of developing socio-emotional difficulties. Possible neural substrates for these socio-emotional difficulties are alterations in the structural connectivity of the social brain due to premature birth. The objective of the current study was to study microstructural white matter integrity in VPT versus full-term (FT) born school-aged children along twelve white matter tracts involved in socio-emotional processing. Diffusion MRI scans were obtained from a sample of 35 VPT and 38 FT 8-to-12-year-old children. Tractography was performed using TractSeg, a state-of-the-art neural network-based approach, which offers investigation of detailed tract profiles of fractional anisotropy (FA). Group differences in FA along the tracts were investigated using both a traditional and complementary functional data analysis approach. Exploratory correlations were performed between the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2), a parent-report questionnaire assessing difficulties in social functioning, and FA along the tract. Both analyses showed significant reductions in FA for the VPT group along the middle portion of the right SLF I and an anterior portion of the left SLF II. These group differences possibly indicate altered white matter maturation due to premature birth and may contribute to altered functional connectivity in the Theory of Mind network which has been documented in earlier work with VPT samples. Apart from reduced social motivation in the VPT group, there were no significant group differences in reported social functioning, as assessed by SRS-2. We found that in the VPT group higher FA values in segments of the left SLF I and right SLF II were associated with better social functioning. Surprisingly, the opposite was found for segments in the right IFO, where higher FA values were associated with worse reported social functioning. Since no significant correlations were found for the FT group, this relationship may be specific for VPT children. The current study overcomes methodological limitations of previous studies by more accurately segmenting white matter tracts using constrained spherical deconvolution based tractography, by applying complementary tractometry analysis approaches to estimate changes in FA more accurately, and by investigating the FA profile along the three components of the SLF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ward Deferm
- Center for Developmental Psychiatry, KU Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Tiffany Tang
- Center for Developmental Psychiatry, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Nicky Daniels
- Neuromotor Rehabilitation Research Group, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jean Steyaert
- Center for Developmental Psychiatry, KU Leuven, Belgium; Child Psychiatry, UZ Leuven, Belgium
| | - Kaat Alaerts
- Neuromotor Rehabilitation Research Group, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Gunnar Naulaers
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit - Neonatology, UZ Leuven, Belgium; UZ Leuven & Center for Developmental Disorders, Belgium
| | - Bart Boets
- Center for Developmental Psychiatry, KU Leuven, Belgium
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16
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Escudero-Cabarcas J, Pineda-Alhucema W, Martinez-Banfi M, Acosta-López JE, Cervantes-Henriquez ML, Mejía-Segura E, Jiménez-Figueroa G, Sánchez-Barros C, Puentes-Rozo PJ, Noguera-Machacón LM, Ahmad M, de la Hoz M, Vélez JI, Arcos-Burgos M, Pineda DA, Sánchez M. Theory of Mind in Huntington's Disease: A Systematic Review of 20 Years of Research. J Huntingtons Dis 2024; 13:15-31. [PMID: 38517797 DOI: 10.3233/jhd-230594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/24/2024]
Abstract
Background People with Huntington's disease (HD) exhibit neurocognitive alterations throughout the disease, including deficits in social cognitive processes such as Theory of Mind (ToM). Objective The aim is to identify methodologies and ToM instruments employed in HD, alongside relevant findings, within the scientific literature of the past two decades. Methods We conducted a comprehensive search for relevant papers in the SCOPUS, PubMed, APA-PsyArticles, Web of Science, Redalyc, and SciELO databases. In the selection process, we specifically focused on studies that included individuals with a confirmed genetic status of HD and investigated ToM functioning in patients with and without motor symptoms. The systematic review followed the PRISMA protocol. Results A total of 27 papers were selected for this systematic review, covering the period from 2003 to 2023. The findings consistently indicate that ToM is globally affected in patients with manifest motor symptoms. In individuals without motor symptoms, impairments are focused on the affective dimensions of ToM. Conclusions Based on our analysis, affective ToM could be considered a potential biomarker for HD. Therefore, it is recommended that ToM assessment be included as part of neuropsychological evaluation protocols in clinical settings. Suchinclusion could aid in the identification of early stages of the disease and provide new opportunities for treatment, particularly with emerging drugs like antisense oligomers. The Prospero registration number for this review is CRD42020209769.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johana Escudero-Cabarcas
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Wilmar Pineda-Alhucema
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Martha Martinez-Banfi
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Johan E Acosta-López
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Martha L Cervantes-Henriquez
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Elsy Mejía-Segura
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Giomar Jiménez-Figueroa
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Cristian Sánchez-Barros
- Hospital Juaneda Miramar Departamento de Neurofisiología Clínica Palma de Mallorca, Islas Baleares, España
| | - Pedro J Puentes-Rozo
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
- Grupo de Neurociencias del Caribe, Universidad del Atlántico, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | | | - Mostapha Ahmad
- Universidad Simón Bolívar, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Moisés de la Hoz
- Universidad Simón Bolívar, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud Barranquilla, Colombia
| | | | - Mauricio Arcos-Burgos
- Grupo de Investigación en Psiquiatría (GIPSI), Departamento de Psiquiatría, Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
| | - David A Pineda
- Grupo de investigación Neuropsicología y Conducta, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Medellín, Colombia
| | - Manuel Sánchez
- Centro de Inv. e Innovación en Ciencias Sociales, Facultad de ciencias jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Barranquilla, Colombia
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17
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Zhou X, Stehr DA, Pyles J, Grossman ED. Configuration of the action observation network depends on the goals of the observer. Neuropsychologia 2023; 191:108704. [PMID: 37858919 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
Observing the actions of others engages a core action observation network (AON) that includes the bilateral inferior frontal cortex (IFC), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) (Caspers et al., 2010). Each region in the AON has functional properties that are heterogeneous and include representing the perceptual properties of action, predicting action outcomes and making inferences as to the goals of the actor. Critically, recent evidence shows that neural representations within the pSTS are sharpened when attending to the kinematics of the actor, such that the top-down guided attention reshapes underlying neural representations. In this study we evaluate how attention alters network connectivity within the AON as a system. Cues directed participant's attention to the goal, kinematics, or identity depicted in short action animations while brain responses were measured by fMRI. We identified those parcels within the AON with functional connectivity modulated by task. Results show that connectivity between the right pSTS and right IFC, and bilateral extended STS (STS+) were modulated during action observation such that connections were strengthened when the participant was attending to the action than goal. This finding is contrasted by the univariate results, which no univariate modulations in these brain regions except for right IFC. Using the functional networks defined by Yeo et al. (2011), we identified the parcels that are modulated by the attention to consist mainly of the fronto-parietal control network and default mode networks. These results are consistent with models of top-down feedback from executive system in the IFC to pSTS and implicates a right lateralized dual pathway model for action observation when focused on whole-body kinematics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaojue Zhou
- University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
| | | | - John Pyles
- University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
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18
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Smith JR, DiSalvo M, Green A, Ceranoglu TA, Anteraper SA, Croarkin P, Joshi G. Treatment Response of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Intellectually Capable Youth and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Neuropsychol Rev 2023; 33:834-855. [PMID: 36161554 PMCID: PMC10039963 DOI: 10.1007/s11065-022-09564-1] [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: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
To examine current clinical research on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in the treatment of pediatric and young adult autism spectrum disorder in intellectually capable persons (IC-ASD). We searched peer-reviewed international literature to identify clinical trials investigating TMS as a treatment for behavioral and cognitive symptoms of IC-ASD. We identified sixteen studies and were able to conduct a meta-analysis on twelve of these studies. Seven were open-label or used neurotypical controls for baseline cognitive data, and nine were controlled trials. In the latter, waitlist control groups were often used over sham TMS. Only one study conducted a randomized, parallel, double-blind, and sham controlled trial. Favorable safety data was reported in low frequency repetitive TMS, high frequency repetitive TMS, and intermittent theta burst studies. Compared to TMS research of other neuropsychiatric conditions, significantly lower total TMS pulses were delivered in treatment and neuronavigation was not regularly utilized. Quantitatively, our multivariate meta-analysis results report improvement in cognitive outcomes (pooled Hedges' g = 0.735, 95% CI = 0.242, 1.228; p = 0.009) and primarily Criterion B symptomology of IC-ASD (pooled Hedges' g = 0.435, 95% CI = 0.359, 0.511; p < 0.001) with low frequency repetitive TMS to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The results of our systematic review and meta-analysis data indicate that TMS may offer a promising and safe treatment option for pediatric and young adult patients with IC-ASD. However, future work should include use of neuronavigation software, theta burst protocols, targeting of various brain regions, and robust study design before clinical recommendations can be made.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua R Smith
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center at Village of Vanderbilt, 1500 21st Avenue South, Suite 2200, Nashville, TN, 37212, USA.
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, 110 Magnolia Circle, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA.
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
| | - Maura DiSalvo
- Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Alan and Lorraine Bressler Clinical and Research Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
| | - Allison Green
- Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Alan and Lorraine Bressler Clinical and Research Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
| | - Tolga Atilla Ceranoglu
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Alan and Lorraine Bressler Clinical and Research Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
| | | | - Paul Croarkin
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, 1216 2nd Street Southwest, Rochester, MN, 55902, USA
| | - Gagan Joshi
- Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Alan and Lorraine Bressler Clinical and Research Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
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19
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Narganes-Pineda C, Paz-Alonso PM, Marotta A, Lupiáñez J, Chica AB. Neural basis of social attention: common and distinct mechanisms for social and nonsocial orienting stimuli. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:11010-11024. [PMID: 37782936 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Social and nonsocial directional stimuli (such as gaze and arrows, respectively) share their ability to trigger attentional processes, although the issue of whether social stimuli generate other additional (and unique) attentional effects is still under debate. In this study, we used the spatial interference paradigm to explore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, shared and dissociable brain activations produced by gaze and arrows. Results showed a common set of regions (right parieto-temporo-occipital) similarly involved in conflict resolution for gaze and arrows stimuli, which showed stronger co-activation for incongruent than congruent trials. The frontal eye field showed stronger functional connectivity with occipital regions for congruent as compared with incongruent trials, and this effect was enhanced for gaze as compared with arrow stimuli in the right hemisphere. Moreover, spatial interference produced by incongruent (as compared with congruent) arrows was associated with increased functional coupling between the right frontal eye field and a set of regions in the left hemisphere. This result was not observed for incongruent (as compared with congruent) gaze stimuli. The right frontal eye field also showed greater coupling with left temporo-occipital regions for those conditions in which larger conflict was observed (arrow incongruent vs. gaze incongruent trials, and gaze congruent vs. arrow congruent trials). These findings support the view that social and nonsocial stimuli share some attentional mechanisms, while at the same time highlighting other differential effects. Highlights Attentional orienting triggered by social (gaze) and nonsocial (arrow) cues is comparable. When social and nonsocial stimuli are used as targets, qualitatively different behavioral effects are observed. This study explores the neural bases of shared and dissociable neural mechanisms for social and nonsocial stimuli. Shared mechanisms were found in the functional coupling between right parieto-temporo-occipital regions. Dissociable mechanisms were found in the functional coupling between right frontal eye field and ipsilateral and contralateral occipito-temporal regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Narganes-Pineda
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja S/N, 18071, Granada, Spain
| | - Pedro M Paz-Alonso
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, Mikeletegi Pasealekua 69, 20009 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbo, Bizkaia, Spain
| | - Andrea Marotta
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja S/N, 18071, Granada, Spain
| | - Juan Lupiáñez
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja S/N, 18071, Granada, Spain
| | - Ana B Chica
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja S/N, 18071, Granada, Spain
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20
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Arioli M, Segatta C, Papagno C, Tettamanti M, Cattaneo Z. Social perception in deaf individuals: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:5402-5415. [PMID: 37609693 PMCID: PMC10543108 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/22/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Deaf individuals may report difficulties in social interactions. However, whether these difficulties depend on deafness affecting social brain circuits is controversial. Here, we report the first meta-analysis comparing brain activations of hearing and (prelingually) deaf individuals during social perception. Our findings showed that deafness does not impact on the functional mechanisms supporting social perception. Indeed, both deaf and hearing control participants recruited regions of the action observation network during performance of different social tasks employing visual stimuli, and including biological motion perception, face identification, action observation, viewing, identification and memory for signs and lip reading. Moreover, we found increased recruitment of the superior-middle temporal cortex in deaf individuals compared with hearing participants, suggesting a preserved and augmented function during social communication based on signs and lip movements. Overall, our meta-analysis suggests that social difficulties experienced by deaf individuals are unlikely to be associated with brain alterations but may rather depend on non-supportive environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Arioli
- Department of Human and Social SciencesUniversity of BergamoBergamoItaly
| | - Cecilia Segatta
- Department of Human and Social SciencesUniversity of BergamoBergamoItaly
| | - Costanza Papagno
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC)University of TrentoTrentoItaly
| | | | - Zaira Cattaneo
- Department of Human and Social SciencesUniversity of BergamoBergamoItaly
- IRCCS Mondino FoundationPaviaItaly
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21
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Torabian S, Grossman ED. When shapes are more than shapes: perceptual, developmental, and neurophysiological basis for attributions of animacy and theory of mind. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1168739. [PMID: 37744598 PMCID: PMC10513434 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1168739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Among a variety of entities in their environment, what do humans consider alive or animate and how does this attribution of animacy promote development of more abstract levels of mentalizing? By decontextualizing the environment of bodily features, we review how physical movements give rise to perceived animacy in Heider-Simmel style animations. We discuss the developmental course of how perceived animacy shapes our interpretation of the social world, and specifically discuss when and how children transition from perceiving actions as goal-directed to attributing behaviors to unobservable mental states. This transition from a teleological stance, asserting a goal-oriented interpretation to an agent's actions, to a mentalistic stance allows older children to reason about more complex actions guided by hidden beliefs. The acquisition of these more complex cognitive behaviors happens developmentally at the same time neural systems for social cognition are coming online in young children. We review perceptual, developmental, and neural evidence to identify the joint cognitive and neural changes associated with when children begin to mentalize and how this ability is instantiated in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sajjad Torabian
- Visual Perception and Neuroimaging Lab, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
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22
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Cristiano A, Finisguerra A, Urgesi C, Avenanti A, Tidoni E. Functional role of the theory of mind network in integrating mentalistic prior information with action kinematics during action observation. Cortex 2023; 166:107-120. [PMID: 37354870 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/26/2023]
Abstract
Inferring intentions from verbal and nonverbal human behaviour is critical for everyday social life. Here, we combined Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) with a behavioural priming paradigm to test whether key nodes of the Theory of Mind network (ToMn) contribute to understanding others' intentions by integrating prior knowledge about an agent with the observed action kinematics. We used a modified version of the Faked-Action Discrimination Task (FAD), a forced-choice paradigm in which participants watch videos of actors lifting a cube and judge whether the actors are trying to deceive them concerning the weight of the cube. Videos could be preceded or not by verbal description (prior) about the agent's truthful or deceitful intent. We applied single pulse TMS over three key nodes of the ToMn, namely dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ). Sham-TMS served as a control (baseline) condition. Following sham or rTPJ stimulation, we observed no consistent influence of priors on FAD performance. In contrast, following dmPFC stimulation, and to a lesser extent pSTS stimulation, truthful and deceitful actions were perceived as more deceptive only when the prior suggested a dishonest intention. These findings highlight a functional role of dmPFC and pSTS in coupling prior knowledge about deceptive intents with observed action kinematics in order to judge faked actions. Our study provides causal evidence that fronto-temporal nodes of the ToMn are functionally relevant to mental state inference during action observation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Azzurra Cristiano
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome and CLN(2)S@Sapienza, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
| | | | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Neuropsychiatry and Neurorehabilitation Unit, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, Udine, Italy
| | - Alessio Avenanti
- Department of Psychology, Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy; Centro de Investigación en Neuropsicología y Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad Católica Del Maule, Talca, Chile.
| | - Emmanuele Tidoni
- Human Technology Laboratory, School of Psychology and Social Work, University of Hull, Hull, UK; School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
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23
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Goupil N, Hochmann JR, Papeo L. Intermodulation responses show integration of interacting bodies in a new whole. Cortex 2023; 165:129-140. [PMID: 37279640 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.04.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
People are often seen among other people, relating to and interacting with one another. Recent studies suggest that socially relevant spatial relations between bodies, such as the face-to-face positioning, or facingness, change the visual representation of those bodies, relative to when the same items appear unrelated (e.g., back-to-back) or in isolation. The current study addresses the hypothesis that face-to-face bodies give rise to a new whole, an integrated representation of individual bodies in a new perceptual unit. Using frequency-tagging EEG, we targeted, as a measure of integration, an EEG correlate of the non-linear combination of the neural responses to each of two individual bodies presented either face-to-face as if interacting, or back-to-back. During EEG recording, participants (N = 32) viewed two bodies, either face-to-face or back-to-back, flickering at two different frequencies (F1 and F2), yielding two distinctive responses in the EEG signal. Spectral analysis examined the responses at the intermodulation frequencies (nF1±mF2), signaling integration of individual responses. An anterior intermodulation response was observed for face-to-face bodies, but not for back-to-back bodies, nor for face-to-face chairs and machines. These results show that interacting bodies are integrated into a representation that is more than the sum of its parts. This effect, specific to body dyads, may mark an early step in the transformation towards an integrated representation of a social event, from the visual representation of individual participants in that event.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Goupil
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives-Marc Jeannerod, UMR5229, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bron, France.
| | - Jean-Rémy Hochmann
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives-Marc Jeannerod, UMR5229, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bron, France
| | - Liuba Papeo
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives-Marc Jeannerod, UMR5229, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bron, France.
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24
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Landsiedel J, Koldewyn K. Auditory dyadic interactions through the "eye" of the social brain: How visual is the posterior STS interaction region? IMAGING NEUROSCIENCE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2023; 1:1-20. [PMID: 37719835 PMCID: PMC10503480 DOI: 10.1162/imag_a_00003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023]
Abstract
Human interactions contain potent social cues that meet not only the eye but also the ear. Although research has identified a region in the posterior superior temporal sulcus as being particularly sensitive to visually presented social interactions (SI-pSTS), its response to auditory interactions has not been tested. Here, we used fMRI to explore brain response to auditory interactions, with a focus on temporal regions known to be important in auditory processing and social interaction perception. In Experiment 1, monolingual participants listened to two-speaker conversations (intact or sentence-scrambled) and one-speaker narrations in both a known and an unknown language. Speaker number and conversational coherence were explored in separately localised regions-of-interest (ROI). In Experiment 2, bilingual participants were scanned to explore the role of language comprehension. Combining univariate and multivariate analyses, we found initial evidence for a heteromodal response to social interactions in SI-pSTS. Specifically, right SI-pSTS preferred auditory interactions over control stimuli and represented information about both speaker number and interactive coherence. Bilateral temporal voice areas (TVA) showed a similar, but less specific, profile. Exploratory analyses identified another auditory-interaction sensitive area in anterior STS. Indeed, direct comparison suggests modality specific tuning, with SI-pSTS preferring visual information while aSTS prefers auditory information. Altogether, these results suggest that right SI-pSTS is a heteromodal region that represents information about social interactions in both visual and auditory domains. Future work is needed to clarify the roles of TVA and aSTS in auditory interaction perception and further probe right SI-pSTS interaction-selectivity using non-semantic prosodic cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Landsiedel
- Department of Psychology, School of Human and Behavioural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
| | - Kami Koldewyn
- Department of Psychology, School of Human and Behavioural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
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25
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Rosenblau G, Frolichs K, Korn CW. A neuro-computational social learning framework to facilitate transdiagnostic classification and treatment across psychiatric disorders. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 149:105181. [PMID: 37062494 PMCID: PMC10236440 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105181] [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: 08/31/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Social deficits are among the core and most striking psychiatric symptoms, present in most psychiatric disorders. Here, we introduce a novel social learning framework, which consists of neuro-computational models that combine reinforcement learning with various types of social knowledge structures. We outline how this social learning framework can help specify and quantify social psychopathology across disorders and provide an overview of the brain regions that may be involved in this type of social learning. We highlight how this framework can specify commonalities and differences in the social psychopathology of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), personality disorders (PD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) and improve treatments on an individual basis. We conjecture that individuals with psychiatric disorders rely on rigid social knowledge representations when learning about others, albeit the nature of their rigidity and the behavioral consequences can greatly differ. While non-clinical cohorts tend to efficiently adapt social knowledge representations to relevant environmental constraints, psychiatric cohorts may rigidly stick to their preconceived notions or overly coarse knowledge representations during learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela Rosenblau
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA; Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.
| | - Koen Frolichs
- Section Social Neuroscience, Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Christoph W Korn
- Section Social Neuroscience, Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
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26
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Smith E, Xiao Y, Xie H, Manwaring SS, Farmer C, Thompson L, D'Souza P, Thurm A, Redcay E. Posterior superior temporal cortex connectivity is related to social communication in toddlers. Infant Behav Dev 2023; 71:101831. [PMID: 37012188 PMCID: PMC10330088 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2023.101831] [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: 07/29/2019] [Revised: 02/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/04/2023]
Abstract
The second year of life is a time when social communication skills typically develop, but this growth may be slower in toddlers with language delay. In the current study, we examined how brain functional connectivity is related to social communication abilities in a sample of 12-24 month-old toddlers including those with typical development (TD) and those with language delays (LD). We used an a-priori, seed-based approach to identify regions forming a functional network with the left posterior superior temporal cortex (LpSTC), a region associated with language and social communication in older children and adults. Social communication and language abilities were assessed using the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) and Mullen Scales of Early Learning. We found a significant association between concurrent CSBS scores and functional connectivity between the LpSTC and the right posterior superior temporal cortex (RpSTC), with greater connectivity between these regions associated with better social communication abilities. However, functional connectivity was not related to rate of change or language outcomes at 36 months of age. These data suggest an early marker of low communication abilities may be decreased connectivity between the left and right pSTC. Future longitudinal studies should test whether this neurobiological feature is predictive of later social or communication impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Smith
- Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA
| | - Yaqiong Xiao
- Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China; Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, USA
| | - Hua Xie
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, USA
| | - Stacy S Manwaring
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Utah, USA
| | - Cristan Farmer
- Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
| | - Lauren Thompson
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Washington State University, USA
| | - Precilla D'Souza
- Office of the Clinical Director, National Human Genome Research Institute, USA
| | - Audrey Thurm
- Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
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27
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Cardillo R, Crisci G, Seregni S, Mammarella IC. Social perception in children and adolescents with ADHD: The role of higher-order cognitive skills. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2023; 135:104440. [PMID: 36764097 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Revised: 01/13/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Despite children with ADHD frequently experiencing difficulties in social perception, the mechanisms underlying this impairment have been poorly explored. In this study, we examined social perception in children with ADHD, comparing them with typically-developing (TD) children on semi-naturalistic tasks, and considering the effect of nonverbal signal recognition. Our aim was to ascertain whether the two groups' social perception related to different types of stimulus (video, audio or combined/multimodal). The role of three higher-order cognitive skills (theory of mind, attention and pragmatic language) was also investigated. Thirty-six children with ADHD, and 36 TD controls were tested. Social perception was significantly associated with participants' ability to recognize nonverbal signals, and with the stimulus presentation modality. Children with ADHD only performed less well than TD children with combined stimuli. As concerns the higher-order cognitive skills, theory of mind had a significant role in both groups, but only with the video and combined stimuli, while attention explained most of the variance in social perception for all types of stimulus. Better pragmatic language skills were only associated with a better social perception in TD children, whatever the type of stimulus presented. Semi-naturalistic tasks should be included when assessing social perception in ADHD, and both theory of mind and attention should be the object of efforts to enhance social perception in the ADHD population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona Cardillo
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Giulia Crisci
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.
| | - Stefano Seregni
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Irene C Mammarella
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.
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28
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Maliske LZ, Schurz M, Kanske P. Interactions within the social brain: Co-activation and connectivity among networks enabling empathy and Theory of Mind. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 147:105080. [PMID: 36764638 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2021] [Revised: 09/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/05/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) have classically been studied as separate social functions, however, recent advances demonstrate the need to investigate the two in interaction: naturalistic settings often blur the distinction of affect and cognition and demand the simultaneous processing of such different stimulus dimensions. Here, we investigate how empathy and ToM related brain networks interact in contexts wherein multiple cognitive and affective demands must be processed simultaneously. Building on the findings of a recent meta-analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis, we perform meta-analytic connectivity modeling to determine patterns of task-context specific network changes. We analyze 140 studies including classical empathy and ToM tasks, as well as complex social tasks. For studies at the intersection of empathy and ToM, neural co-activation patterns included areas typically associated with both empathy and ToM. Network integration is discussed as a means of combining mechanisms across unique behavioral domains. Such integration may enable adaptive behavior in complex, naturalistic social settings that require simultaneous processing of a multitude of different affective and cognitive information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lara Z Maliske
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Chemnitzer Straße 46, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
| | - Matthias Schurz
- Institute of Psychology and Digital Science Center, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, & Behaviour, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 Nijmegen, Netherlands; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 13 Mansifield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR, United Kingdom
| | - Philipp Kanske
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Chemnitzer Straße 46, 01187 Dresden, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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29
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Milano BA, Moutoussis M, Convertino L. The neurobiology of functional neurological disorders characterised by impaired awareness. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1122865. [PMID: 37009094 PMCID: PMC10060839 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1122865] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 02/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023] Open
Abstract
We review the neurobiology of Functional Neurological Disorders (FND), i.e., neurological disorders not explained by currently identifiable histopathological processes, in order to focus on those characterised by impaired awareness (functionally impaired awareness disorders, FIAD), and especially, on the paradigmatic case of Resignation Syndrome (RS). We thus provide an improved more integrated theory of FIAD, able to guide both research priorities and the diagnostic formulation of FIAD. We systematically address the diverse spectrum of clinical presentations of FND with impaired awareness, and offer a new framework for understanding FIAD. We find that unraveling the historical development of neurobiological theory of FIAD is of paramount importance for its current understanding. Then, we integrate contemporary clinical material in order to contextualise the neurobiology of FIAD within social, cultural, and psychological perspectives. We thus review neuro-computational insights in FND in general, to arrive at a more coherent account of FIAD. FIAD may be based on maladaptive predictive coding, shaped by stress, attention, uncertainty, and, ultimately, neurally encoded beliefs and their updates. We also critically appraise arguments in support of and against such Bayesian models. Finally, we discuss implications of our theoretical account and provide pointers towards an improved clinical diagnostic formulation of FIAD. We suggest directions for future research towards a more unified theory on which future interventions and management strategies could be based, as effective treatments and clinical trial evidence remain limited.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice Annunziata Milano
- Institute of Life Sciences, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy
- Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Michael Moutoussis
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery (UCLH), London, United Kingdom
| | - Laura Convertino
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery (UCLH), London, United Kingdom
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Laura Convertino,
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30
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Benetti S, Ferrari A, Pavani F. Multimodal processing in face-to-face interactions: A bridging link between psycholinguistics and sensory neuroscience. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1108354. [PMID: 36816496 PMCID: PMC9932987 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1108354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In face-to-face communication, humans are faced with multiple layers of discontinuous multimodal signals, such as head, face, hand gestures, speech and non-speech sounds, which need to be interpreted as coherent and unified communicative actions. This implies a fundamental computational challenge: optimally binding only signals belonging to the same communicative action while segregating signals that are not connected by the communicative content. How do we achieve such an extraordinary feat, reliably, and efficiently? To address this question, we need to further move the study of human communication beyond speech-centred perspectives and promote a multimodal approach combined with interdisciplinary cooperation. Accordingly, we seek to reconcile two explanatory frameworks recently proposed in psycholinguistics and sensory neuroscience into a neurocognitive model of multimodal face-to-face communication. First, we introduce a psycholinguistic framework that characterises face-to-face communication at three parallel processing levels: multiplex signals, multimodal gestalts and multilevel predictions. Second, we consider the recent proposal of a lateral neural visual pathway specifically dedicated to the dynamic aspects of social perception and reconceive it from a multimodal perspective ("lateral processing pathway"). Third, we reconcile the two frameworks into a neurocognitive model that proposes how multiplex signals, multimodal gestalts, and multilevel predictions may be implemented along the lateral processing pathway. Finally, we advocate a multimodal and multidisciplinary research approach, combining state-of-the-art imaging techniques, computational modelling and artificial intelligence for future empirical testing of our model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefania Benetti
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy,Interuniversity Research Centre “Cognition, Language, and Deafness”, CIRCLeS, Catania, Italy,*Correspondence: Stefania Benetti,
| | - Ambra Ferrari
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Francesco Pavani
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy,Interuniversity Research Centre “Cognition, Language, and Deafness”, CIRCLeS, Catania, Italy
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31
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Friedrich EVC, Zillekens IC, Biel AL, O'Leary D, Singer J, Seegenschmiedt EV, Sauseng P, Schilbach L. Spatio-temporal dynamics of oscillatory brain activity during the observation of actions and interactions between point-light agents. Eur J Neurosci 2023; 57:657-679. [PMID: 36539944 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15903] [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: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Predicting actions from non-verbal cues and using them to optimise one's response behaviour (i.e. interpersonal predictive coding) is essential in everyday social interactions. We aimed to investigate the neural correlates of different cognitive processes evolving over time during interpersonal predictive coding. Thirty-nine participants watched two agents depicted by moving point-light stimuli while an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. One well-recognizable agent performed either a 'communicative' or an 'individual' action. The second agent either was blended into a cluster of noise dots (i.e. present) or was entirely replaced by noise dots (i.e. absent), which participants had to differentiate. EEG amplitude and coherence analyses for theta, alpha and beta frequency bands revealed a dynamic pattern unfolding over time: Watching communicative actions was associated with enhanced coupling within medial anterior regions involved in social and mentalising processes and with dorsolateral prefrontal activation indicating a higher deployment of cognitive resources. Trying to detect the agent in the cluster of noise dots without having seen communicative cues was related to enhanced coupling in posterior regions for social perception and visual processing. Observing an expected outcome was modulated by motor system activation. Finally, when the agent was detected correctly, activation in posterior areas for visual processing of socially relevant features was increased. Taken together, our results demonstrate that it is crucial to consider the temporal dynamics of social interactions and of their neural correlates to better understand interpersonal predictive coding. This could lead to optimised treatment approaches for individuals with problems in social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth V C Friedrich
- Department of Psychology, Research Unit Biological Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Imme C Zillekens
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
| | - Anna Lena Biel
- Department of Psychology, Research Unit Biological Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Department of Psychology, Research Unit Experimental Psychology, Münster University, Münster, Germany
| | - Dariusz O'Leary
- Department of Psychology, Research Unit Biological Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Johannes Singer
- Department of Psychology, Research Unit Biological Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Eva Victoria Seegenschmiedt
- Department of Psychology, Research Unit Biological Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Paul Sauseng
- Department of Psychology, Research Unit Biological Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Leonhard Schilbach
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,Medical Faculty, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
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32
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Ni HC, Chao YP, Tseng RY, Wu CT, Cocchi L, Chou TL, Chen RS, Gau SSF, Yeh CH, Lin HY. Lack of effects of four-week theta burst stimulation on white matter macro/microstructure in children and adolescents with autism. Neuroimage Clin 2023; 37:103324. [PMID: 36638598 PMCID: PMC9852693 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2022] [Revised: 12/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Following the published behavioral and cognitive results of this single-blind parallel sham-controlled randomized clinical trial, the current study aimed to explore the impact of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a variant of excitatory transcranial magnetic stimulation, over the bilateral posterior superior temporal sulci (pSTS) on white matter macro/microstructure in intellectually able children and adolescents with autism. Participants were randomized and blindly received active or sham iTBS for 4 weeks (the single-blind sham-controlled phase). Then, all participants continued to receive active iTBS for another 4 weeks (the open-label phase). The clinical results were published elsewhere. Here, we present diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data on potential changes in white matter measures after iTBS. Twenty-two participants in Active-Active group and 27 participants in Sham-Active group underwent multi-shell high angular resolution diffusion imaging (64-direction for b = 2000 & 1000 s/mm2, respectively) at baseline, week 4, and week 8. With longitudinal fixel-based analysis, we found no white matter changes following iTBS from baseline to week 4 (a null treatment by time interaction and a null within-group paired comparison in the Active-Active group), nor from baseline to week 8 (null within-group paired comparisons in both Active-Active and Sham-Active groups). As for the brain-symptoms relationship, we did not find baseline white matter metrics associated with symptom changes at week 4 in either group. Our results raise the question of what the minimal cumulative stimulation dose required to induce the white matter plasticity is.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsing-Chang Ni
- Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ping Chao
- Deparment of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Rung-Yu Tseng
- Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Chen-Te Wu
- Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Luca Cocchi
- Clinical Brain Networks Group, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Tai-Li Chou
- Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Rou-Shayn Chen
- Department of Neurology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Susan Shur-Fen Gau
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Hung Yeh
- Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
| | - Hsiang-Yuan Lin
- Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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33
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Vaitonytė J, Alimardani M, Louwerse MM. Scoping review of the neural evidence on the uncanny valley. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR REPORTS 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chbr.2022.100263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
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34
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Nuez A, Padrón I, Reyes-Moreno C, Marrero H. Effect of transcranialdirect current stimulation on the right brain temporal area on processing approach and avoidance attitudes with negation. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:971051. [DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.971051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Language describes approach/avoidance intentionality by means of attitudinal verbs (e.g., accept vs. reject). The right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) has been shown to be recruited in processing action goals and approach intentionality in social contexts. In this study, we examine whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of this area improves the processing of attitudinal verbs (either of approach or avoidance) in the context of affirmative and negative sentences [e.g., Julio (did not)/included meat on the grocery list]. After being subjected to tDCS, 46 participants were given sentences for passive reading. Sentences were displayed in segments with a fixed time of exposition, and a verb, either the one mentioned in the sentence or an alternative one was displayed 1,500 ms after the sentence (e.g., included vs. excluded, in the example). Participants were told to read them and then press the space bar to continue the experiment. Results showed shorter latencies for approach verbs that were either mentioned in approach sentences or the alternatives in avoidance sentences, both in affirmative and negative versions under anodal conditions compared to sham conditions. Thus, the anodal stimulation of rSTS affected the accessibility of approach verbs that were not modulated either by being mentioned or by sentence polarity. In addition, mentioned verbs had shorter reading times than the alternative ones in negative sentences in the anodal vs. sham condition. This suggests that stimulation caused an effect of negation in the activation of the mentioned verb. Implications are discussed in the context of the role of the rSTS in processing attitudinal verbs and negation to understand better approach and avoidance mediated by language in the framework of the two-step model of negation processing.
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35
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Okruszek Ł, Chrustowicz M, Jarkiewicz M, Krawczyk M, Manera V, Piejka A, Schudy A, Wiśniewska M, Wysokiński A. Mentalizing abilities mediate the impact of the basic social perception on negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. J Psychiatr Res 2022; 155:85-89. [PMID: 35995018 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.07.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2022] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 07/30/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Social cognitive deficits are currently considered as one of the main predictors of clinical symptoms and functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia. Multiple studies have suggested that a two-factor solution (low-level vs. high-level) best describes the structure of social cognitive processes in patients. While higher-order processes have been repeatedly linked to negative symptoms, no such association was found for lower-level processes. Thus, the aim of the current study is to examine whether the association between basic social perception processes and symptoms in patients with schizophrenia is mediated by mentalizing abilities. One hundred thirty-nine patients have completed basic social perception (Communicative Interactions Database task CID-12) and mentalizing (Reading the Mind in the Eyes task) tasks. In line with our hypothesis, we have observed full mediation of the effects of basic social perception abilities on negative symptoms via mentalizing abilities in patients. This effect suggests that, similarly as in the case of positive symptoms, a hierarchical nature of social cognitive processes should be considered while investigating negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ł Okruszek
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.
| | - M Chrustowicz
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | | | - M Krawczyk
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | | | - A Piejka
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | - A Schudy
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Wiśniewska
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
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36
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Hodgson VJ, Lambon Ralph MA, Jackson RL. The cross-domain functional organization of posterior lateral temporal cortex: insights from ALE meta-analyses of 7 cognitive domains spanning 12,000 participants. Cereb Cortex 2022; 33:4990-5006. [PMID: 36269034 PMCID: PMC10110446 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2022] [Revised: 09/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The posterior lateral temporal cortex is implicated in many verbal, nonverbal, and social cognitive domains and processes. Yet without directly comparing these disparate domains, the region's organization remains unclear; do distinct processes engage discrete subregions, or could different domains engage shared neural correlates and processes? Here, using activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses, the bilateral posterior lateral temporal cortex subregions engaged in 7 domains were directly compared. These domains comprised semantics, semantic control, phonology, biological motion, face processing, theory of mind, and representation of tools. Although phonology and biological motion were predominantly associated with distinct regions, other domains implicated overlapping areas, perhaps due to shared underlying processes. Theory of mind recruited regions implicated in semantic representation, tools engaged semantic control areas, and faces engaged subregions for biological motion and theory of mind. This cross-domain approach provides insight into how posterior lateral temporal cortex is organized and why.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria J Hodgson
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
| | - Matthew A Lambon Ralph
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
| | - Rebecca L Jackson
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychology & York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
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37
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Learning about threat from friends and strangers is equally effective: An fMRI study on observational fear conditioning. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119648. [PMID: 36162633 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119648] [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: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans often benefit from social cues when learning about the world. For instance, learning about threats from others can save the individual from dangerous first-hand experiences. Familiarity is believed to increase the effectiveness of social learning, but it is not clear whether it plays a role in learning about threats. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we undertook a naturalistic approach and investigated whether there was a difference between observational fear learning from friends and strangers. Participants (observers) witnessed either their friends or strangers (demonstrators) receiving aversive (shock) stimuli paired with colored squares (observational learning stage). Subsequently, participants watched the same squares, but without receiving any shocks (direct-expression stage). We observed a similar pattern of brain activity in both groups of observers. Regions related to threat responses (amygdala, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex) and social perception (fusiform gyrus, posterior superior temporal sulcus) were activated during the observational phase, possibly reflecting the emotional contagion process. The anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex were also activated during the subsequent stage, indicating the expression of learned threat. Because there were no differences between participants observing friends and strangers, we argue that social threat learning is independent of the level of familiarity with the demonstrator.
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Gugnowska K, Novembre G, Kohler N, Villringer A, Keller PE, Sammler D. Endogenous sources of interbrain synchrony in duetting pianists. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4110-4127. [PMID: 35029645 PMCID: PMC9476614 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2021] [Revised: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
When people interact with each other, their brains synchronize. However, it remains unclear whether interbrain synchrony (IBS) is functionally relevant for social interaction or stems from exposure of individual brains to identical sensorimotor information. To disentangle these views, the current dual-EEG study investigated amplitude-based IBS in pianists jointly performing duets containing a silent pause followed by a tempo change. First, we manipulated the similarity of the anticipated tempo change and measured IBS during the pause, hence, capturing the alignment of purely endogenous, temporal plans without sound or movement. Notably, right posterior gamma IBS was higher when partners planned similar tempi, it predicted whether partners' tempi matched after the pause, and it was modulated only in real, not in surrogate pairs. Second, we manipulated the familiarity with the partner's actions and measured IBS during joint performance with sound. Although sensorimotor information was similar across conditions, gamma IBS was higher when partners were unfamiliar with each other's part and had to attend more closely to the sound of the performance. These combined findings demonstrate that IBS is not merely an epiphenomenon of shared sensorimotor information but can also hinge on endogenous, cognitive processes crucial for behavioral synchrony and successful social interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katarzyna Gugnowska
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Research Group Neurocognition of Music and Language, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany
| | - Giacomo Novembre
- Neuroscience of Perception and Action Lab, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rome 00161, Italy
| | - Natalie Kohler
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Research Group Neurocognition of Music and Language, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany
| | - Arno Villringer
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Peter E Keller
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Daniela Sammler
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Research Group Neurocognition of Music and Language, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany
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Obeid R, DeNigris D, Brooks PJ. Linking fine motor skills with theory of mind in school-age children. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/01650254221116863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Motor skills have been linked to language and social development with implications for theory of mind. This study examined theory of mind (attribution of intentions task) in school-age children ( N = 62, mean age 8 years; 2 months, standard deviation [ SD] = 1;3) in relation to fine motor skills (grooved pegboard), receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test), receptive grammar (Test for the Reception of Grammar), reading comprehension (Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests), verbal short-term (nonword repetition), and visual-spatial working memory (one-shape array memory). All variables except verbal short-term memory correlated with accuracy on theory of mind. In regression models, fine motor skills accounted for variance in theory of mind after controlling for age, language, and working memory. The results add to research linking fine motor skills with faux pas understanding, indicating the potentially broad impact of motor skills on social cognition. Given the cross-sectional study design, longitudinal research is warranted to address causality.
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Tarai S, Qurratul QA, Ratre V, Bit A. Neurocognitive functions of prosocial and unsocial incongruency information during language comprehension: evidence from time–frequency analysis of EEG signals. Med Biol Eng Comput 2022; 60:1033-1053. [DOI: 10.1007/s11517-022-02528-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Metoki A, Wang Y, Olson IR. The Social Cerebellum: A Large-Scale Investigation of Functional and Structural Specificity and Connectivity. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:987-1003. [PMID: 34428293 PMCID: PMC8890001 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The cerebellum has been traditionally disregarded in relation to nonmotor functions, but recent findings indicate it may be involved in language, affective processing, and social functions. Mentalizing, or Theory of Mind (ToM), is the ability to infer mental states of others and this skill relies on a distributed network of brain regions. Here, we leveraged large-scale multimodal neuroimaging data to elucidate the structural and functional role of the cerebellum in mentalizing. We used functional activations to determine whether the cerebellum has a domain-general or domain-specific functional role, and effective connectivity and probabilistic tractography to map the cerebello-cerebral mentalizing network. We found that the cerebellum is organized in a domain-specific way and that there is a left cerebellar effective and structural lateralization, with more and stronger effective connections from the left cerebellar hemisphere to the right cerebral mentalizing areas, and greater cerebello-thalamo-cortical and cortico-ponto-cerebellar streamline counts from and to the left cerebellum. Our study provides novel insights to the network organization of the cerebellum, an overlooked brain structure, and mentalizing, one of humans' most essential abilities to navigate the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athanasia Metoki
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
- Department of Neurology,Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Yin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Ingrid R Olson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
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Cerebellar Contribution to Emotional Body Language Perception. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2022; 1378:141-153. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-99550-8_10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
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Endevelt-Shapira Y, Djalovski A, Dumas G, Feldman R. Maternal chemosignals enhance infant-adult brain-to-brain synchrony. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabg6867. [PMID: 34890230 PMCID: PMC8664266 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg6867] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Maternal body odors serve as important safety-promoting and social recognition signals, but their role in human brain maturation is largely unknown. Utilizing ecological paradigms and dual- electroencephalography recording, we examined the effects of maternal chemosignals on brain-to-brain synchrony during infant-mother and infant-stranger interactions with and without the presence of maternal body odors. Neural connectivity of right-to-right brain theta synchrony emerged across conditions, sensitizing key nodes of the infant’s social brain during its maturational period. Infant-mother interaction elicited greater brain-to-brain synchrony; however, maternal chemosignals attenuated this difference. Infants exhibited more social attention, positive arousal, and safety/approach behaviors in the maternal chemosignals condition, which augmented infant-stranger neural synchrony. Human mothers use interbrain mechanisms to tune the infant’s social brain, and chemosignals may sustain the transfer of infant sociality from the mother-infant bond to life within social groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaara Endevelt-Shapira
- Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel
| | - Amir Djalovski
- Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel
| | - Guillaume Dumas
- Precision Psychiatry and Social Physiology Laboratory, CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Human Brain and Behavior Laboratory, Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
| | - Ruth Feldman
- Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel
- Yale University, Child Study Center, New Haven, CT 06519, USA
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Moore M, Katsumi Y, Dolcos S, Dolcos F. Electrophysiological Correlates of Social Decision-making: An EEG Investigation of a Modified Ultimatum Game. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 34:54-78. [PMID: 34673955 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Cooperation behaviors during social decision-making have been shown to be sensitive to manipulations of context. However, it remains unclear how aspects of context in dynamic social interactions, such as observed nonverbal behaviors, may modulate cooperation decisions and the associated neural mechanisms. In this study, participants responded to offers from proposers to split $10 in an Ultimatum Game following observation of proposer approach (friendly) or avoidance (nonfriendly) behaviors, displayed by dynamic whole-body animated avatars, or following a nonsocial interaction control condition. As expected, behavioral results showed that participants tended to have greater acceptance rates for unfair offers following observed nonverbal social interactions with proposers compared with control, suggesting an enhancing effect of social interactions on cooperative decisions. ERP results showed greater N1 and N2 responses at the beginning of social interaction conditions compared with control, and greater sustained and late positivity responses for observed approach and avoidance proposer behaviors compared with control. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) results showed differential sensitivity within theta, alpha, and beta bands during observation of social interactions and offers that was associated with subsequent decision behaviors. Together, these results point to the impact of proposers' nonverbal behaviors on subsequent cooperation decisions at both behavioral and neural levels. The ERP and ERSP findings suggest modulated attention, monitoring, and processing of biological motion during the observed nonverbal social interactions, influencing the participants' responses to offers. These findings shed light on electrophysiological correlates of response to observed social interactions that predict subsequent social decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yuta Katsumi
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.,Northeastern University
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Human face and gaze perception is highly context specific and involves bottom-up and top-down neural processing. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 132:304-323. [PMID: 34861296 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.11.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
This review summarizes human perception and processing of face and gaze signals. Face and gaze signals are important means of non-verbal social communication. The review highlights that: (1) some evidence is available suggesting that the perception and processing of facial information starts in the prenatal period; (2) the perception and processing of face identity, expression and gaze direction is highly context specific, the effect of race and culture being a case in point. Culture affects by means of experiential shaping and social categorization the way in which information on face and gaze is collected and perceived; (3) face and gaze processing occurs in the so-called 'social brain'. Accumulating evidence suggests that the processing of facial identity, facial emotional expression and gaze involves two parallel and interacting pathways: a fast and crude subcortical route and a slower cortical pathway. The flow of information is bi-directional and includes bottom-up and top-down processing. The cortical networks particularly include the fusiform gyrus, superior temporal sulcus (STS), intraparietal sulcus, temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex.
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Cheng Q, Han Z, Liu S, Kong Y, Weng X, Mo L. Neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 227:843-863. [PMID: 34767078 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02422-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
The judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty objectively refer to the perception and evaluation of moral traits, which are generally influenced by facial attractiveness. For centuries, people have equated beauty with the possession of positive qualities, but it is not clear whether the association between beauty and positive qualities exerts a similarly implicit influence on people's responses to moral goodness and moral beauty, how it affects those responses, and what is the neural basis for such an effect. The present study is the first to examine the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the judgments of moral goodness and moral beauty. We found that beautiful faces in both moral judgments activated the left ventral occipitotemporal cortices sensitive to the geometric configuration of the faces, demonstrating that both moral goodness and moral beauty required the automatic visual analysis of geometrical configuration of attractive faces. In addition, compared to beautiful faces during moral goodness judgment, beautiful faces during moral beauty judgment induced unique activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and midline cortical structures involved in the emotional-valenced information about attractive faces. The opposite comparison elicited specific activity in the left superior temporal cortex and premotor area, which play a critical role in the recognition of facial identity. Our results demonstrated that the neural responses to facial attractiveness in the process of higher order moral decision-makings exhibit both task-general and task-specific characteristics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality and aesthetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiuping Cheng
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55 West Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Zhili Han
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55 West Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, New York University, Shanghai, 200062, China
| | - Shun Liu
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55 West Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Yilong Kong
- School of Music, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Xuchu Weng
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55 West Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Lei Mo
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55 West Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
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Reyes C, Padrón I, Nila Yagual S, Marrero H. Personality Traits Modulate the Effect of tDCS on Reading Speed of Social Sentences. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11111464. [PMID: 34827463 PMCID: PMC8615552 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11111464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
In this case, 62 university students participated in the study, in which a between-subjects design was adopted. Participants were also given the behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) scales. Participants had to read a list of 60 sentences with interpersonal and neutral content: 20 approach (“Pedro accepted Rosa in Whatsapp”), 20 avoidance (“Pedro Blocked Rosa in Whatsapp”) and 20 neutral (“Marta thought about the causes of the problem”). After reading them, they were subjected to 20 min of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in one of the two conditions: anodal (31) or sham (31). After tDCS, they had to read other list of 60 sentences matched in approach, avoidance and neutral contents with the former list. We found significant improvement in reading speed after anodal stimulation for social and neutral sentences. Regarding affective traits, we found that anodal stimulation benefitted reading speed in low-BIS and low-BAS participants and had no effect in either high BAS or high BIS participants. In addition, tDCS improvement in reading speed was significantly lower in avoidance sentences in low-BIS (avoidance) participants. We discuss these results at the light of previous research and highlight the importance of approach and avoidance traits as moderators of tDCS effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristian Reyes
- Experimental Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
- Correspondence:
| | - Iván Padrón
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (H.M.)
- Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
| | - Sara Nila Yagual
- Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y de la Salud, Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena, La Libertad 241702, Ecuador;
| | - Hipólito Marrero
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (H.M.)
- Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva, Social y Organizacional, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
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Team Flow Is a Unique Brain State Associated with Enhanced Information Integration and Interbrain Synchrony. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0133-21.2021. [PMID: 34607804 PMCID: PMC8513532 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0133-21.2021] [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: 03/29/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Team flow occurs when a group functions in a high task engagement to achieve a goal, commonly seen in performance and sports. Team flow can enable enhanced positive experiences, as compared with individual flow or regular socializing. However, the neural basis for this enhanced behavioral state remains unclear. Here, we identified neural correlates (NCs) of team flow in human participants using a music rhythm task with electroencephalogram hyperscanning. Experimental manipulations held the motor task constant while disrupting the corresponding hedonic music to interfere with the flow state or occluding the partner's positive feedback to impede team interaction. We validated these manipulations by using psychometric ratings and an objective measure for the depth of flow experience, which uses the auditory-evoked potential (AEP) of a task-irrelevant stimulus. Spectral power analysis at both the scalp sensors and anatomic source levels revealed higher β-γ power specific to team flow in the left middle temporal cortex (L-MTC). Causal interaction analysis revealed that the L-MTC is downstream in information processing and receives information from areas encoding the flow or social states. The L-MTC significantly contributes to integrating information. Moreover, we found that team flow enhances global interbrain integrated information (II) and neural synchrony. We conclude that the NCs of team flow induce a distinct brain state. Our results suggest a neurocognitive mechanism to create this unique experience.
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Xia Z, Wang C, Hancock R, Vandermosten M, Hoeft F. Development of thalamus mediates paternal age effect on offspring reading: A preliminary investigation. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:4580-4596. [PMID: 34219304 PMCID: PMC8410543 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Revised: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 06/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The importance of (inherited) genetic impact in reading development is well established. De novo mutation is another important contributor that is recently gathering interest as a major liability of neurodevelopmental disorders, but has been neglected in reading research to date. Paternal age at childbirth (PatAGE) is known as the most prominent risk factor for de novo mutation, which has been repeatedly shown by molecular genetic studies. As one of the first efforts, we performed a preliminary investigation of the relationship between PatAGE, offspring's reading, and brain structure in a longitudinal neuroimaging study following 51 children from kindergarten through third grade. The results showed that greater PatAGE was significantly associated with worse reading, explaining an additional 9.5% of the variance after controlling for a number of confounds-including familial factors and cognitive-linguistic reading precursors. Moreover, this effect was mediated by volumetric maturation of the left posterior thalamus from ages 5 to 8. Complementary analyses indicated the PatAGE-related thalamic region was most likely located in the pulvinar nuclei and related to the dorsal attention network by using brain atlases, public datasets, and offspring's diffusion imaging data. Altogether, these findings provide novel insights into neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the PatAGE effect on reading acquisition during its earliest phase and suggest promising areas of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhichao Xia
- Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for NeurosciencesUniversity of CaliforniaSan FranciscoCaliforniaUSA
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain ResearchBeijing Normal UniversityBeijingChina
- School of Systems ScienceBeijing Normal UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Cheng Wang
- Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for NeurosciencesUniversity of CaliforniaSan FranciscoCaliforniaUSA
| | - Roeland Hancock
- Department of Psychological Sciences and Brain Imaging Research CenterUniversity of ConnecticutStorrsConnecticutUSA
| | - Maaike Vandermosten
- Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for NeurosciencesUniversity of CaliforniaSan FranciscoCaliforniaUSA
- Department of NeuroscienceExperimental ORL, KU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Fumiko Hoeft
- Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for NeurosciencesUniversity of CaliforniaSan FranciscoCaliforniaUSA
- Department of Psychological Sciences and Brain Imaging Research CenterUniversity of ConnecticutStorrsConnecticutUSA
- Haskins LaboratoriesNew HavenConnecticutUSA
- Department of NeuropsychiatryKeio University School of MedicineShinjuku‐kuTokyoJapan
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50
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Riadh O, Naoufel O, Ben Rejeb MR, Le Gall D. Impaired social perception from eyes and face visual cues: evidence from prefrontal cortex damage. Soc Neurosci 2021; 16:607-626. [PMID: 34544320 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1983458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Despite the key role that decoding of social-perceptual cues from faces plays in interpersonal communication, it is only recently that the potential of prefrontal cortex damage to disrupt this ability has been recognized. In fact, few studies to date had assessed whether the ability to identify the state of mind of others from the whole or part of the face is disrupted after prefrontal cortex damage and whether these two abilities are associated and share overlapped neural systems. In the present study, 30 patients with focal prefrontal lesions and 30 matched control subjects were assessed on their ability to recognize six basic emotions from facial expressions of the whole face and to identify states of mind of others from photographs of only the eyes using the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task". Results showed that frontal patients were significantly impaired compared with control subjects on both tasks. Moreover, regression analyses showed that these two abilities are associated and reciprocally predictive of one another. Finally, using voxel-based lesion analysis; we identified a partially common bilaterally distributed prefrontal network in the decoding of both emotional cues from both the whole face and eyes centered within the dorsomedial and ventral regions with extension to the lateral frontal pole.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ouerchefani Riadh
- University of Tunis El Manar, High Institute of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, 26 Boulevard Darghouth Pacha, Tunis, Tunisia.,Univ Angers, Université De Nantes, LPPL, SFR CONFLUENCES, F-49000 Angers, France
| | | | - Mohamed Riadh Ben Rejeb
- , University Tunis I, Faculty of Human and Social Science of Tunisia, Department of Psychology, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Didier Le Gall
- Univ Angers, Université De Nantes, LPPL, SFR CONFLUENCES, F-49000 Angers, France
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