1
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Zhang L, Qiao L, Xu M, Fan L, Du X, Yang D. Personal relative deprivation impairs the ability to inhibit impulsive responses: an exploratory ERP study. Cogn Process 2023; 24:609-618. [PMID: 37347347 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-023-01147-z] [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: 11/22/2021] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
Evidence indicates that personal relative deprivation (PRD) can lead to various impulsive behaviors. Given that impulsive behaviors are usually caused by a failure to exert cognitive control, the purpose of this study was to explore whether PRD affects the ability to exert cognitive control on behavior. Forty-six healthy participants were randomly assigned to PRD or non-PRD group. Participants of the PRD group were told their income would lie below the Chinese average. While their electrophysiological responses were recorded, they underwent a Go/No-Go task simultaneously assessing the ability to detect response conflict and inhibit the predominant response. We found that the individuals with induced PRD show diminished ability to inhibit predominant response. We suggest this is because PRD-related concerns consume cognitive resources, leaving less for other tasks. However, we also found that individuals with induced PRD show enhanced ability to detect conflict. This might be because that individuals with induced PRD were sensitive to potentially threatening information (high-conflict No-Go trials) and they can detect conflict with less cognitive resources. These findings may facilitate future attempts to design interventions for relatively deprived individuals to manage their impulsive behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lijie Zhang
- School of Education Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, 510665, China
| | - Lei Qiao
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China.
| | - Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Lingxia Fan
- Department of Public Administration, Ningbo Administration Institution, Ningbo, China
| | - Xiaoli Du
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China
| | - Dong Yang
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China
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2
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Yuan S, Xu M, Zhao J, Zhu Y, Yang D. Trust violations affect the emotional working memory updating: An event-related brain potential study. Int J Psychophysiol 2022; 179:67-76. [PMID: 35753562 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.06.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies found that trust violations impaired the ability of working memory (WM) updating, however, these studies did not consider the emotional context in the WM updating. Individuals who experience trust violations have the characteristics of negative bias and enhanced negative emotion. Thus it is necessary to explore how emotional contexts moderate the relationship between trust violations and WM updating. In this study, the trust game was used to manipulate trust violations. Fifty-three participants performed the emotional two-back task while event-related potentials were recorded. Results showed that compared to the control group, the violation group had smaller P2 and P3 amplitudes both in emotional and nonemotional contexts and larger N2 amplitudes in the emotional contexts. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the behavioral data. These results suggest that trust violations result in the inefficient allocation of attention in the early attention (P2) and updating maintenance stages (P3) regardless of the emotional type of the material. Trust violations also improve the abilities of response inhibition, conflict monitoring, or sequential match (N2) when processing emotional material, which may play a compensatory role to maintain a level of behavioral performance comparable to the control group. Together, trust violations affect the sub-processes underlying emotional WM updating differently, and these influences are not valence specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuge Yuan
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Jia Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Yue Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Dong Yang
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
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3
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The influence of social pain experience on empathic neural responses: the moderating role of gender. Exp Brain Res 2021; 240:53-69. [PMID: 34854933 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06279-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/11/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Empathy for pain, the ability to share and understand the pain of others, plays an important role in the survival and development of individuals. Previous studies have found that social pain experience affects empathy for pain, but potential gender differences have not been considered. The stage of information processing during which gender is most likely to play a moderating role has yet to be clarified. In the current study, we set up two groups (social pain experience priming: social exclusion group; positive social interaction experience priming: social inclusion group) with a Cyberball game paradigm. We recorded the electrophysiological responses when participants were completing an empathy task. An early frontal P2 and N2 differentiation between painful stimuli and neutral stimuli was observed and females showed larger P2 amplitudes than males. At the P3 stage, in the social exclusion group, males showed similar parietal P3 amplitudes for painful and neutral stimuli, while females showed smaller P3 amplitudes for painful stimuli. At the central-parietal late positive potential (LPP) stage, females in the social inclusion group showed larger LPP amplitudes for painful stimuli than males. Our results suggest that gender plays a significant moderating role in how social pain experience affects empathy for pain during the late cognitive processing stage. Experiment 2 was designed to investigate the cognitive mechanism behind the results for the P3 component in females and the results partially confirmed our speculation. This study provides a neurophysiological basis for the dynamic gender differences in the effects of social pain experience on empathy for pain.
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4
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Wang G, Wang P, Chen Y. Doctors inhibit social threat empathy in the later stage of cognitive processing: Electrophysiological evidence. Conscious Cogn 2021; 92:103130. [PMID: 34023646 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103130] [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: 08/19/2020] [Revised: 03/27/2021] [Accepted: 04/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have found that repeatedly exposed to a threatening situation may reduce doctors' level of empathy, reducing psychological stress and avoiding burnout and compassion fatigue. However, many essential studies found that it does not seem universal but rather modulated by group membership. In this study, we recorded event-related potentials (ERP) when doctors and controls watched visual stimuli describing patients attacking doctors (Threat events) or shaking hands with doctors (Neutral events). The present study showed an early N190 and a later centro-parietal P3 differential amplitude between threat stimuli and neutral stimuli were observed in the controls. For the doctors, there was such ERP differentiation in early N190. However, later stage P3 differential amplitude was not observed. The current research suggests that doctors could regulate empathy and avoid allocating more attention resources when processing social threats to ensure treatment efficiency and avoid burnout.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guan Wang
- School of Education Science, Huaiyin Normal University, 111, West Changjiang Road, Huaiyin District, Huaian 223001, China; Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China.
| | - Pei Wang
- Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China; Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, 3663, Zhongshan North Road, Putuo District, Shanghai 200062, China.
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5
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Zhang H, Zhang S, Lu J, Lei Y, Li H. Social exclusion increases the executive function of attention networks. Sci Rep 2021; 11:9494. [PMID: 33947874 PMCID: PMC8096936 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-86385-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies in humans have shown that brain regions activating social exclusion overlap with those related to attention. However, in the context of social exclusion, how does behavioral monitoring affect individual behavior? In this study, we used the Cyberball game to induce the social exclusion effect in a group of participants. To explore the influence of social exclusion on the attention network, we administered the Attention Network Test (ANT) and compared results for the three subsystems of the attention network (orienting, alerting, and executive control) between exclusion (N = 60) and inclusion (N = 60) groups. Compared with the inclusion group, the exclusion group showed shorter overall response time and better executive control performance, but no significant differences in orienting or alerting. The excluded individuals showed a stronger ability to detect and control conflicts. It appears that social exclusion does not always exert a negative influence on individuals. In future research, attention to network can be used as indicators of social exclusion. This may further reveal how social exclusion affects individuals' psychosomatic mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huoyin Zhang
- Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5, Jing'an Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, 610068, China.,College of Psychology and Society, University of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518067, China
| | - Shiyunmeng Zhang
- Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5, Jing'an Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, 610068, China.,College of Psychology and Society, University of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518067, China
| | - Jiachen Lu
- Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5, Jing'an Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, 610068, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Yi Lei
- Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5, Jing'an Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, 610068, China. .,College of Psychology and Society, University of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518067, China.
| | - Hong Li
- Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5, Jing'an Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, 610068, China.,College of Psychology and Society, University of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518067, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
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6
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Fan M, Jie J, Luo P, Pang Y, Xu D, Yu G, Zhao S, Chen W, Zheng X. Social Exclusion Down-Regulates Pain Empathy at the Late Stage of Empathic Responses: Electrophysiological Evidence. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:634714. [PMID: 33732123 PMCID: PMC7956954 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.634714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Social exclusion has a significant impact on cognition, emotion, and behavior. Some behavioral studies investigated how social exclusion affects pain empathy. Conclusions were inconsistent, and there is a lack of clarity in identifying which component of pain empathy is more likely to be affected. To investigate these issues, we used a Cyberball task to manipulate feelings of social exclusion. Two groups (social exclusion and social inclusion) participated in the same pain empathy task while we recorded event-related potentials (ERP) when participants viewed static images of body parts in painful and neutral situations. The results showed early N2 differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in the central regions in both groups. The pattern at the late controlled processing stage was different. Parietal P3 amplitudes for painful pictures were significantly smaller than those for neutral pictures in the social exclusion group; they did not differ in the social inclusion group. We observed a parietal late positive potential (LPP) differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in both groups. LPP amplitudes were significantly smaller in the social exclusion group than those in the social inclusion group for painful stimuli. Our results indicate that social exclusion does not affect empathic responses during the early emotional sharing stage. However, it down-regulates empathic responses at the late cognitive controlled stage, and this modulation is attenuated gradually. The current study provides neuroscientific evidence of how social exclusion dynamically influences pain empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Fan
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jing Jie
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China
| | - Pinchao Luo
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yu Pang
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,School of Education and Psychological Science, Sichuan University of Science, and Engineering, Zigong, China
| | - Danna Xu
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,School of Management, Guangzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Gaowen Yu
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Shaochen Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,China People's Police University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Wei Chen
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xifu Zheng
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
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7
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Xu M, Li Z, Qi S, Fan L, Zhou X, Yang D. Social exclusion modulates dual mechanisms of cognitive control: Evidence from ERPs. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 41:2669-2685. [PMID: 32491264 PMCID: PMC7294065 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2019] [Revised: 01/30/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies have investigated how social exclusion influences cognitive control but reported inconsistent findings. Based on the dual mechanisms of control framework, this study investigated how social exclusion influences proactive and reactive modes of control (Experiment 1) and the underlying mechanisms (Experiment 2). The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion. Eighty-six female participants (about 40 for each experiment) performed cognitive control tasks while event-related potentials were recorded. In Experiment 1, an AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) was adopted to differentiate between proactive and reactive control. Results showed that social exclusion weakened proactive control but enhanced reactive control, as reflected by the weaker proactive control indicators (i.e., P3b and CNV), but strengthened reactive control indicators (accuracy and N2) in excluded individuals. More importantly, in Experiment 2, through varying in whether task cues were available before or after target onset in a cued-flanker task, we further manipulated the possibility of engaging proactive control, and found the weakened proactive control could be attributed to both impaired cognitive ability and lowered motivation to engage proactive control in excluded individuals. Together, these results provide insight on how social exclusion influences cognitive control and suggest promising implications for designing effective interventions to relieve the negative impact of social exclusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Zhiai Li
- College of Psychology and Sociology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Senqing Qi
- MOE Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Lingxia Fan
- College of Teacher Education, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Xiaolin Zhou
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.,School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Dong Yang
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
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8
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Peng S, Xuan B, Li P. Fearful faces modulate cognitive control under varying levels of uncertainty: An event-related potential study. Brain Cogn 2020; 141:105550. [PMID: 32087426 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2019] [Revised: 01/05/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive control can reduce uncertainty, but few studies have investigated temporal dynamics of the flexible allocation of resources under varying levels of uncertainty. We used a revised majority function task with emotional faces and event-related potentials to investigate this process. The task incorporated different ratios of face orientation to quantify uncertainty. Participants performed slower in high uncertainty than in other levels. Under low uncertainty, participants showed greater amplitudes of frontal N200 and late frontal wave to neutral faces than fearful faces. Parietal P300 amplitudes decreased from low uncertainty to high uncertainty, and fearful faces elicited greater P300 amplitudes than neutral faces under all levels of uncertainty. These results suggest that emotion and uncertainty interacted in the frontal cortex during both early and late stages, while no interaction existed in the parietal cortex during the late stage. The interference of fearful faces is lessened by increasing cognitive control under high uncertainty in the frontal cortex, suggesting that humans possess the ability to flexibly allocate mental resources in the temporal domain. Our findings provide evidence to support the fronto-parietal network hypothesis of cognitive control in a novel perspective of uncertainty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suhao Peng
- School of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Bin Xuan
- School of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China.
| | - Peng Li
- School of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
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9
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Xu M, Qiao L, Qi S, Li Z, Diao L, Fan L, Zhang L, Yang D. Social exclusion weakens storage capacity and attentional filtering ability in visual working memory. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 13:92-101. [PMID: 29149349 PMCID: PMC5793715 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2017] [Accepted: 11/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Social exclusion has been found to impair visual working memory (WM), while the underlying neural processes are currently unclear. Using two experiments, we tested whether the poor WM performance caused by exclusion was due to reduced storage capacity, impaired attentional filtering ability or both. The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion. Seventy-four female participants performed WM tasks while event-related potentials were recorded. In Experiment 1, participants were made to remember the orientations of red rectangles while ignoring salient green rectangles. Results showed that exclusion impaired the ability to filter out irrelevant items from WM, as reflected by the similar contralateral delay activity (CDA) amplitudes for one-target-one-distractor condition and two-targets condition, as well as the similar CDA amplitudes for two-targets-two-distractors condition and four-targets condition in excluded individuals. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to remember 1–5 colored squares. Results showed that exclusion reduced storage capacity, as the CDA amplitudes reached asymptote at loads of two items for exclusion group and at loads of three items for inclusion group. Together, these two experiments provided complementary evidence that WM deficits caused by social exclusion were due to reduced storage capacity and impaired attentional filtering ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.,Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Lei Qiao
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.,Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Senqing Qi
- MOE Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, China
| | - Zhiai Li
- The School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
| | - Liuting Diao
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.,Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Lingxia Fan
- School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Lijie Zhang
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.,Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Dong Yang
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.,Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China
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10
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Blondé J, Girandola F. Self-Relevant Threatening Messages Promote Vigilance Toward Coping Information: Evidence of Positive Processing at Attentional Level. SOCIAL COGNITION 2018. [DOI: 10.1521/soco.2018.36.4.411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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11
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Sullivan-Toole H, Dobryakova E, DePasque S, Tricomi E. Reward circuitry activation reflects social preferences in the face of cognitive effort. Neuropsychologia 2018; 123:55-66. [PMID: 29906456 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.06.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2017] [Revised: 05/23/2018] [Accepted: 06/11/2018] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Research at the intersection of social neuroscience and cognitive effort is an interesting new area for exploration. There is great potential to broaden our understanding of how social context and cognitive effort processes, currently addressed in disparate literatures, interact with one another. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on cognitive effort, focusing on effort-linked valuation and the gap in the literature regarding cognitive effort in the social domain. Next, we present a study designed to explore valuation processes linked to cognitive effort within the social context of an inequality manipulation. More specifically, we created monetary inequality among the participant (SELF, endowed with $50) and two confederates: one also endowed with $50 (OTHER HIGH) and another with only $5 (OTHER LOW). We then scanned participants using fMRI as they attempted to earn bonus payments for themselves and others through a cognitively effortful feedback-based learning task. Positive feedback produced significantly greater activation than negative feedback in key valuation regions, the ventral striatum (VS) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), both when participants were performing the task on their own behalf and when earning rewards for others. While reward-related activity in the VS was exaggerated for SELF compared to OTHER HIGH for both positive and negative feedback, activity in the vmPFC did not distinguish between recipients in the group-level results. Furthermore, participants naturally fell into two groups: those most engaged when playing for themselves and those who reported engagement for others. While Self-Engaged participants showed differences between the SELF and both OTHER conditions in the VS and vmPFC, Other-Engaged participants only showed an attenuated response to negative feedback for OTHER HIGH compared to SELF in the VS and no differences between recipient conditions in the vmPFC. Together, this work shows the importance of individual differences and the fragility of advantageous inequality aversion in the face of cognitive effort, highlighting the need to study cognitive effort in the social domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly Sullivan-Toole
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 101 Warren St., Newark, NJ 07201, USA.
| | - Ekaterina Dobryakova
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 101 Warren St., Newark, NJ 07201, USA.
| | - Samantha DePasque
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 101 Warren St., Newark, NJ 07201, USA.
| | - Elizabeth Tricomi
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 101 Warren St., Newark, NJ 07201, USA.
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12
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Xu M, Li Z, Diao L, Fan L, Zhang L, Yuan S, Yang D. Social exclusion impairs distractor suppression but not target enhancement in selective attention. Int J Psychophysiol 2017; 121:72-79. [PMID: 28601652 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2017] [Revised: 04/11/2017] [Accepted: 06/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Social exclusion has been thought to weaken one's ability to exert inhibitory control. Existing studies have primarily focused on the relationship between exclusion and behavioral inhibition, and have reported that exclusion impairs behavioral inhibition. However, whether exclusion also affects selective attention, another important aspect of inhibitory control, remains unknown. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore whether social exclusion impairs selective attention, and to specifically examine its effect on two hypothesized mechanisms of selective attention: target enhancement and distractor suppression. The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion. Participants then performed a visual search task while event-related potentials were recorded. In the visual search task, target and salient distractor were either both presented laterally or one was presented on the vertical midline and the other laterally. Results showed that social exclusion differentially affected target and distractor processing. While exclusion impaired distractor suppression, reflected as smaller distractor-positivity (Pd) amplitudes for the exclusion group compared to the inclusion group, it did not affect target enhancement, reflected as similar target-negativity (Nt) amplitudes for both the exclusion and inclusion groups. Together, these results extend our understanding of the relationship between exclusion and inhibitory control, and suggest that social exclusion affects selective attention in a more complex manner than previously thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China
| | - Zhiai Li
- The School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Liuting Diao
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China
| | - Lingxia Fan
- School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Lijie Zhang
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China
| | - Shuge Yuan
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China
| | - Dong Yang
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China.
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13
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Chester DS, Lynam DR, Milich R, DeWall CN. Social rejection magnifies impulsive behavior among individuals with greater negative urgency: An experimental test of urgency theory. J Exp Psychol Gen 2017; 146:962-967. [PMID: 28368194 DOI: 10.1037/xge0000308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Impulsivity is a multifaceted trait with substantial implications for human well-being. One facet of impulsivity is negative urgency, the tendency to act impulsively in response to negative affect. Correlational evidence suggests that negative affect magnifies impulsive behavior among individuals with greater negative urgency, yet causal evidence for this core pillar of urgency theory is lacking. To fill this gap in the literature, participants (N = 363) were randomly assigned to experience social rejection (a situation shown to induce negative affect) or acceptance. Participants then reported their subjective negative affect, completed a behavioral measure of impulsivity, and reported their negative urgency. Among individuals with relatively high and average negative urgency, social rejection increased their impulsive behavior through greater experiences of negative affect. These indirect effects were not observed among individuals relatively low in negative urgency. These findings suggest that negative urgency exists at the nexus of urgent dispositions and situations that elicit negative affect, which offers novel support for urgency theory. (PsycINFO Database Record
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