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Neurobiological correlates and attenuated positive social intention attribution during laughter perception associated with degree of autistic traits. J Neural Transm (Vienna) 2023; 130:585-596. [PMID: 36808307 PMCID: PMC10049931 DOI: 10.1007/s00702-023-02599-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 02/03/2023] [Indexed: 02/21/2023]
Abstract
Laughter plays an important role in group formation, signaling social belongingness by indicating a positive or negative social intention towards the receiver. In adults without autism, the intention of laughter can be correctly differentiated without further contextual information. In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, differences in the perception and interpretation of social cues represent a key characteristic of the disorder. Studies suggest that these differences are associated with hypoactivation and altered connectivity among key nodes of the social perception network. How laughter, as a multimodal nonverbal social cue, is perceived and processed neurobiologically in association with autistic traits has not been assessed previously. We investigated differences in social intention attribution, neurobiological activation, and connectivity during audiovisual laughter perception in association with the degree of autistic traits in adults [N = 31, Mage (SD) = 30.7 (10.0) years, nfemale = 14]. An attenuated tendency to attribute positive social intention to laughter was found with increasing autistic traits. Neurobiologically, autistic trait scores were associated with decreased activation in the right inferior frontal cortex during laughter perception and with attenuated connectivity between the bilateral fusiform face area with bilateral inferior and lateral frontal, superior temporal, mid-cingulate and inferior parietal cortices. Results support hypoactivity and hypoconnectivity during social cue processing with increasing ASD symptoms between socioemotional face processing nodes and higher-order multimodal processing regions related to emotion identification and attribution of social intention. Furthermore, results reflect the importance of specifically including signals of positive social intention in future studies in ASD.
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Zhu W, Chen J, Tian X, Wu X, Matkurban K, Qiu J, Xia LX. The brain correlates of hostile attribution bias and their relation to the displaced aggression. J Affect Disord 2022; 317:204-211. [PMID: 36029872 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.065] [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: 10/05/2021] [Revised: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Hostile attribution bias (HAB) has been considered as a risk factor of various types of psychosocial adjustment problem, and contributes to displaced aggression (DA). The neural basis of HAB and the underlying mechanisms of how HAB predicts DA remain unclear. METHODS The current study used degree centrality (DC) and resting-sate functional connectivity (RSFC) to investigate the functional connection pattern related to HAB in 503 undergraduate students. Furthermore, the "Decoding" was used to investigate which psychological components the maps of the RSFC-behavior may be related to. Finally, to investigate whether and how the RSFC pattern, HAB predicts DA, we performed mediation analyses. RESULTS We found that HAB was negatively associated with DC in bilateral temporal poles (TP) and positively correlated with DC in the putamen and thalamus; Moreover, HAB was negatively associated with the strength of functional connectivity between TP and brain regions in the theory of mind network (ToM), and positively related to the strength of functional connectivity between the thalamus and regions in the ToM network. The "Decoding" showed the maps of the RSFC-behavior may involve the theory mind, autobiographic, language, comprehension and working memory. Mediation analysis further showed that HAB mediated the relationship between some neural correlates of the HAB and DA. LIMITATIONS The current results need to be further tested by experimental methods or longitudinal design in further studies. CONCLUSIONS These findings shed light on the neural underpinnings of HAB and provide a possible mediation model regarding the relationships among RSFC pattern, HAB, and displaced aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenfeng Zhu
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Jianxue Chen
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Xue Tian
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Xinyan Wu
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Kalbinur Matkurban
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Jiang Qiu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Ling-Xiang Xia
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.
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Plate RC, Zhao S, Katz C, Graber E, Daley G, Corbett N, All K, Neumann CS, Waller R. Are you laughing with me or at me? Psychopathic traits and the ability to distinguish between affiliation and dominance laughter cues. J Pers 2021; 90:631-644. [PMID: 34714936 DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Revised: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Laughter conveys important information that supports social communication and bonding. Research suggests that unique acoustic properties distinguish laughter that promotes affiliation from laughter that conveys dominance, but little is known about potential individual differences in laughter interpretation or contagion based on these specified social functions of laughter. Psychopathy is associated with both affiliative deficits (e.g., lack of empathy and impaired social bonding) and behaviors that assert social dominance (e.g., manipulativeness). Thus, relationships between psychopathic traits and impaired laughter interpretation or contagion could give insight into etiological pathways to psychopathy. METHOD In two studies conducted with four independent samples (total N = 770), participants categorized laughter clips that varied in the degree of affiliation or dominance conveyed. RESULTS Participants overall drew rich and accurate social inferences from dominant and affiliative laughter and modulated their interest in joining in with laughter based on the type and degree of affiliation and dominance conveyed. However, individuals higher in psychopathic traits failed to distinguish between laughter types and did not modulate their level of engagement based on laughter features. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest a potential mechanism that underlies the broader social difficulties associated with psychopathic traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rista C Plate
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Sylvia Zhao
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Chloe Katz
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Edie Graber
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Grace Daley
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Natalie Corbett
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Katherine All
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Craig S Neumann
- Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
| | - Rebecca Waller
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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Martinelli A, Kreifelts B, Wildgruber D, Bernhard A, Ackermann K, Freitag CM, Schwenck C. Aggression differentially modulates neural correlates of social intention attribution to benevolent, tickling and taunting laughter: An fMRI study in children and adolescents. Soc Neurosci 2021; 16:303-316. [PMID: 33759708 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1908420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Human laughter is a powerful means of communicating social intention, ranging from welcoming and friendly to hostile and ridiculing. To be communicated accurately, the recipient must correctly identify the laugher's underlying social intention. Regular misattribution of the social intention of others has been associated with maladaptive psychosocial development, in particular with aggressive behavior. We investigated the relationship between self-reported aggressive behavior and the neural correlates of social intention attributions to different audiovisual laughter types in 50 healthy children and adolescents (29 female, 10-18 years, M 15.5, SD 2.2) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Trial-by-trial associations of neural response and behavioral attributions were distinctly modulated by aggression for benevolent versus taunting and tickling laughter. With increasing aggression, hostile misattributions of benevolent laughter were associated with decreased dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior insular cortex activation. In contrast, hostile attributions of taunting and tickling laughter were associated with increased superior frontal, superior temporal, medial prefrontal, supplementary motor, and anterior and mid-cingulate cortex activation. We argue that aggression may be associated with down-regulated emotional saliency of benevolent laughter, whereas up-regulated neural responses to taunting laughter may underlie a heightened sensitivity to hostility or acceptance of taunting behavior in more aggressive individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Martinelli
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
| | - B Kreifelts
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - D Wildgruber
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - A Bernhard
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
| | - K Ackermann
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
| | - C M Freitag
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
| | - C Schwenck
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany.,Department of Special Needs Educational and Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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Immediate online use of prosody reveals the ironic intentions of a speaker: neurophysiological evidence. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 21:74-92. [DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00849-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Ethofer T, Stegmaier S, Koch K, Reinl M, Kreifelts B, Schwarz L, Erb M, Scheffler K, Wildgruber D. Are you laughing at me? Neural correlates of social intent attribution to auditory and visual laughter. Hum Brain Mapp 2019; 41:353-361. [PMID: 31642167 PMCID: PMC7268062 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Revised: 08/30/2019] [Accepted: 09/15/2019] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Laughter is a multifaceted signal, which can convey social acceptance facilitating social bonding as well as social rejection inflicting social pain. In the current study, we addressed the neural correlates of social intent attribution to auditory or visual laughter within an fMRI study to identify brain areas showing linear increases of activation with social intent ratings. Negative social intent attributions were associated with activation increases within the medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate cortex (mPFC/ACC). Interestingly, negative social intent attributions of auditory laughter were represented more rostral than visual laughter within this area. Our findings corroborate the role of the mPFC/ACC as key node for processing “social pain” with distinct modality‐specific subregions. Other brain areas that showed an increase of activation included bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and right superior/middle temporal gyrus (STG/MTG) for visually presented laughter and bilateral STG for auditory presented laughter with no overlap across modalities. Similarly, positive social intent attributions were linked to hemodynamic responses within the right inferior parietal lobe and right middle frontal gyrus, but there was no overlap of activity for visual and auditory laughter. Our findings demonstrate that social intent attribution to auditory and visual laughter is located in neighboring, but spatially distinct neural structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Ethofer
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.,Department of Biomedical Resonance, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Sophia Stegmaier
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Katharina Koch
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Maren Reinl
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Benjamin Kreifelts
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Lena Schwarz
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Michael Erb
- Department of Biomedical Resonance, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Klaus Scheffler
- Department of Biomedical Resonance, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.,Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Dirk Wildgruber
- Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
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