Social cognitive neuroscience: a review of core processes

The role of personality in social interaction perception: an ERP and source imaging study

Agreeableness, one of the five personality traits, is associated with socio-cognitive abilities. This study investigates how agreeableness impacts the perception of social interactions, while considering sex that might moderate this effect. Sixty-two young adults, preselected to ensure a wide range of agreeableness scores, underwent EEG recording while viewing images depicting real-world scenes of two people either engaged in a social interaction or acting independently. Behavioral results suggested a trend where higher agreeableness scores predicted better ability to detect social interactions primarily in males. ERP analysis showed that individuals with higher agreeableness exhibited stronger neural differentiation between social and non-social stimuli, observed in both females and males, and in the whole sample. This neural differentiation, occurring early in the processing timeline, was particularly extensive in males, and predictive of their performance. Three independent source analyses, conducted for the whole sample and for each sex, identified the engagement of right fronto-parietal regions for the ERP-agreeableness association. These findings enhance our understanding of how agreeableness shapes the neural mechanisms underlying social interaction detection and emphasize sex as an important factor in this dynamic. They also highlight the need for tailored approaches that consider personality traits and sex in clinical interventions targeting social impairments.

Lower empathy for face mask wearers is not explained by observer's reduced facial mimicry

Facial occlusion alters social processes that rely on face visibility, including spontaneous mimicry of emotions. Given that facial mimicry of emotions is theorized to play an important role in how we empathize or share emotions with others, here we investigated if empathy was reduced for faces wearing masks because masks may reduce the ability to mimic facial expressions. In two preregistered experiments, participants rated their empathy for faces displaying happy or neutral emotions and wearing masks or no masks. We manipulated mimicry by either blocking mimicry with observers holding a pen in between their teeth (Experiment 1) or by producing a state of constant congruent mimicry by instructing observers to smile (Experiment 2). Results showed reduced empathy ratings for masked faces. Mimicry overall facilitated empathy, with reduced empathy ratings when mimicry was blocked and higher empathy ratings when it was instructed. However, this effect of mimicry did not vary with mask condition. Thus, while observers were impaired in sharing emotions with masked faces, this impairment did not seem to be explained by a reduction in facial mimicry. These results show that mimicry is an important process for sharing emotions, but that occluding faces with masks reduces emotion sharing via a different mechanism.

Taste or health: The impact of packaging cues on consumer decision-making in healthy foods

According to the theory of dietary regulation, consumers frequently encounter conflicts between healthiness and tastiness when selecting healthy foods. This study explores how packaging cue that highlight "tasty" versus "healthy" affect consumers' intentions to purchase healthy food. After an Implicit Association Test (IAT) confirmed a perceived lack of tastiness in health foods in the Preliminary study, Study 1 analyzed pricing and packaging details of the top 200 most-popular items in each of the ten healthy food categories on a major online shopping platform. Results showed that products with taste-focused cues commanded higher prices, indicating stronger consumer acceptance of healthy foods marketed as delicious. To address the causality limitations of observational studies, Study 2 used an experimental design to directly measure the impact of these cues on purchase intentions and perceptions of energy, healthiness, and tastiness. Findings revealed that taste-focused cues significantly boosted purchase intentions compared to health-focused cues, although they also diminished the perceived healthiness of the products. Moreover, in the control group exposed to unhealthy food options, health-emphasized packaging also increased purchase intentions, indicating that consumers seek a balance between healthiness and tastiness, rather than prioritizing health alone. Study 3 further explored the impact of cognitive load over these cue influences, revealing a heightened inclination among consumers to purchase healthy products with taste-focused cue under high cognitive load state. These insights have direct implications for food packaging design, suggesting that emphasizing a balance of taste and health benefits can effectively enhance consumer engagement. The study, which conducted in China, also opens avenues for future research to explore similar effects, maybe in different cultural contexts, different consumer groups, and under varied cognitive conditions.

Hyperscanning to explore social interaction among autistic minds

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.

Does attachment in adolescence predict neural responses to handholding in adulthood? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Objective

Early life experiences, including attachment-related experiences, inform internal working models that guide adult relationship behaviors. Few studies have examined the association between adolescent attachment and adult relationship behavior on a neural level. The current study examined attachment in adolescence and its associations with neural correlates of relationship behaviors in adulthood.

Method

85 participants completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) at age 14. Ten years later, at age 24, participants underwent functional brain image when participants were under the threat of electric shock alone, holding the hand of a stranger, or their partner.

Results

We found that adolescents who were securely attached at age 14 showed increased activation in regions commonly associated with cognitive, affective, and reward processing when they held the hand of their partner and stranger compared to being alone. Adolescents with higher preoccupied attachment scores showed decreased activation in similar regions only during the stranger handholding condition compared to being alone.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that adolescent attachment predicts adult social relationship behaviors on a neural level, in regions largely consistent with previous literature. Broadly, this study has implications for understanding long-term links between attachment and adult relationship behaviors and has potential for informing intervention.

Social anxiety modulating early processing for social threat words: an ERP study

Even though some recent research revealed individuals with HSA typically display enhanced processing in the early stages of emotional information processing due to hypervigilance and vulnerability to negative stimuli, it is still unclear whether social anxiety affects the time course underlying processing bias for emotional stimuli. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the early stage of processing social threat stimuli in high social anxiety (HSA) individuals by recording RTs and EEG data in the emotional Stroop task. Behavioral data showed that the HSA group responded to the threat words faster than neutral words (i.e. negative bias), but no emotional effects in the low social anxiety (LSA) group. Although the P1 component did not show any early effects, ERP data exhibited an enhanced N170 for HSA than for LSA groups. Threat words elicited larger N170 than neutral words in the LSA group only; this emotion effect was not evident in the HSA group. These findings indicated that social anxiety modulates early processing for social threat words. This study revealed the neural mechanisms underlying early emotional processing in individuals with social anxiety, providing insights for the evaluation and intervention of social anxiety.

Seven robust and easy to obtain biomarkers to measure acute stress

With the purpose of identifying a sensitive, robust, and easy-to-measure set of biomarkers to assess stress reactivity, we here study a large set of relatively easy to obtain markers reflecting subjective, autonomic nervous system (ANS), endocrine, and inflammatory responses to acute social stress (n = 101). A subset of the participants was exposed to another social stressor the next day (n = 48) while being measured in the same way. Acute social stress was induced following standardized procedures. The markers investigated were self-reported positive and negative affect, heart rate, electrodermal activity, salivary cortisol, and ten inflammatory markers both in capillary plasma and salivary samples, including IL-22 which has not been studied in response to acute stress in humans before. Robust effects (significant effect in the same direction for both days) were found for self-reported negative affect, heart rate, electrodermal activity, plasma IL-5, plasma IL-22, salivary IL-8 and salivary IL-10. Of these seven markers, the participants' IL-22 responses on the first day were positively correlated to those on the second day. We found no correlations between salivary and capillary plasma stress responses for any of the ten cytokines and somewhat unexpectedly, cytokine responses in saliva seemed more pronounced and more in line with previous literature than cytokines in capillary plasma. In sum, seven robust and easy to obtain biomarkers to measure acute stress response were identified and should be used in future stress research to detect and examine stress reactivity. This includes IL-22 in plasma as a promising novel marker.

Intraoperative mapping of the right hemisphere: a systematic review of protocols that evaluate cognitive and social cognitive functions

The right hemisphere of the brain is often referred to as the non-dominant hemisphere. Though this is meant to highlight the specialized role of the left hemisphere in language, the use of this term runs the risk of oversimplifying or minimizing the essential functions of the right hemisphere. There is accumulating evidence from functional MRI, clinical lesion studies, and intraoperative mapping data that implicate the right hemisphere in a diverse array of cognitive functions, including visuospatial functions, attentional processes, and social cognitive functions. Neuropsychological deficits following right hemisphere resections are well-documented, but there is a general paucity of literature focusing on how to best map these functions during awake brain surgery to minimize such deficits. To address this gap in the literature, a systematic review was conducted to examine the cognitive and emotional processes associated with the right hemisphere and the neuropsychological tasks frequently used for mapping the right hemisphere during awake brain tumor surgery. It was found that the most employed tests to assess language and speech functions in patients with lesions in the right cerebral hemisphere were the naming task and the Pyramids and Palm Trees Test (PPTT). Spatial cognition was typically evaluated using the line bisection task, while social cognition was assessed through the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test. Dual-tasking and the movement of the upper and lower limbs were the most frequently used methods to evaluate motor/sensory functions. Executive functions were typically assessed using the N-back test and Stroop test. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review to help provide guidance on the cognitive functions most at risk and methods to map such functions during right awake brain surgery.

Systematic Review Registration

PROSPERO database [CRD42023483324].

Differently different?: A commentary on the emerging social cognitive neuroscience of female autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition, behaviourally identified, which is generally characterised by social communication differences, and restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. It has long been claimed that it is more common in males. This observed preponderance of males in autistic populations has served as a focussing framework in all spheres of autism-related issues, from recognition and diagnosis through to theoretical models and research agendas. One related issue is the near total absence of females in key research areas. For example, this paper reports a review of over 120 brain-imaging studies of social brain processes in autism that reveals that nearly 70% only included male participants or minimal numbers (just one or two) of females. Authors of such studies very rarely report that their cohorts are virtually female-free and discuss their findings as though applicable to all autistic individuals. The absence of females can be linked to exclusionary consequences of autism diagnostic procedures, which have mainly been developed on male-only cohorts. There is clear evidence that disproportionately large numbers of females do not meet diagnostic criteria and are then excluded from ongoing autism research. Another issue is a long-standing assumption that the female autism phenotype is broadly equivalent to that of the male autism phenotype. Thus, models derived from male-based studies could be applicable to females. However, it is now emerging that certain patterns of social behaviour may be very different in females. This includes a specific type of social behaviour called camouflaging or masking, linked to attempts to disguise autistic characteristics. With respect to research in the field of sex/gender cognitive neuroscience, there is emerging evidence of female differences in patterns of connectivity and/or activation in the social brain that are at odds with those reported in previous, male-only studies. Decades of research have excluded or overlooked females on the autistic spectrum, resulting in the construction of inaccurate and misleading cognitive neuroscience models, and missed opportunities to explore the brain bases of this highly complex condition. A note of warning needs to be sounded about inferences drawn from past research, but if future research addresses this problem of male bias, then a deeper understanding of autism as a whole, as well as in previously overlooked females, will start to emerge.

More than meets the gut: a prototype analysis of the lay conceptions of intuition and analysis

Using a prototype approach, we assessed people's lay conceptions of intuition and analysis. Open-ended descriptions of intuition and analysis were generated by participants (Study 1) and resulting exemplars were sorted into features subsequently rated in centrality by independent participants (Study 2). Feature centrality was validated by showing that participants were quicker and more accurate in classifying central (as compared to peripheral) features (Study 3). Centrality ratings suggested a single-factor structure describing analysis but revealed that participants held lay conceptions of intuition as involving two different types of processes: (1) as an automatic, affective, and non-logical processing, and (2) as a holistic processing that can assist in problem-solving. Additional analyses showed that the centrality ratings of intuition's facets were predicted by participants' self-reported intuitive style, suggesting intuition is differently perceived by intuitive and non-intuitive people. We discuss the implications of these results for the study of intuition and analysis.

Offline and online parental mentalizing in mothers with symptoms of postpartum depression: Examining the association between self-reported parental reflective functioning and interactional mind-mindedness

Mentalizing is, to a certain extent, considered context specific. However, research on the association between parents' abilities to reflect upon their infant's mental states outside social interaction (offline) versus during ongoing parent-infant interaction (online) is currently limited. This study investigated the association between self-reported offline and online mentalizing in a sample of primarily ethnically Danish mothers (N = 142), with symptoms of postpartum depression, and their 1-11-month-old infants. Offline mentalizing was assessed with the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire-Infant Version (PRFQ-I) and online mentalizing was assessed with interactional mind-mindedness. Ordinal logistic regressions showed that a higher score on the PRFQ-I prementalizing subscale was negatively related to number of overall mind-related comments and appropriate mind-related comments produced by mothers during interaction with their infant. Our results indicate partial overlaps between self-reported parental reflective functioning and mind-mindedness, that is, that particularly offline maladaptive mentalizing is associated with lower levels of mentalizing during interaction in mothers with symptoms of depression. Post-hoc examination of the interaction effect of postpartum depression showed that this association was only evident in mothers with medium to high levels of depression. Findings and implications are discussed.

The attentional guidance and facilitating effects of group behavioral cues on individual college pedestrians' jaywalking decisions

OBJECTIVE

Jaywalking is an important cause of pedestrian-related automobile accidents. Exploring the factors that influence jaywalking behavior and suggesting appropriate improvement measures are critical for reducing automobile accidents involving pedestrians.

METHODS

This study divided traffic situations into high-risk and low-risk situations. Each situation contained three visual attention cues: vehicle, traffic light, and group behavior. Based on this, the role of visual cues in guiding pedestrians' attention and influencing their decisions during jaywalking was examined. Sixty participants, with an average age of 19, were recruited. They were shown 84 crosswalk videos randomly while their crossing decisions and eye movement data were recorded.

RESULTS

In low-risk situations, pedestrians spent more attention on group behavioral cues when making jaywalking decisions. The rate of jaywalking increased with the number of other jaywalking pedestrians. In high-risk situations, the pedestrians' total fixation duration at vehicle hazard cues was longer when making jaywalking decisions, and the jaywalking rate decreased.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that pedestrians' jaywalking decisions were based on other pedestrians' illegal crossing cues and automatic associative processes in low-risk situations. The higher the number of people crossing the street, the higher the number of pedestrians illegally crossing the road. In high-risk situations, pedestrians paid more attention to vehicle hazard cues before making jaywalking decisions, and fewer illegal crossings. The jaywalking decisions were based on a risk assessment, a controlled analytical process. The results verify the effect of visual cues on pedestrians' attentional guidance and decision-making in different traffic situations, as well as the effectiveness of visual attention in predicting decision intention. The findings provide a theoretical basis and data reference for pedestrian safety education and constructing an intelligent driving pedestrian trajectory prediction model.

How and when social evaluative feedback is processed in the brain: A systematic review on ERP studies

Social evaluative feedback informs the receiver of the other's views, which may contain judgments of personality-related traits and/or the level of likability. Such kinds of social evaluative feedback are of particular importance to humans. Event-related potentials (ERPs) can directly measure where in the processing stream feedback valence, expectancy, or contextual relevance modulate information processing. This review provides an overview and systematization of studies and early, mid-latency, and late ERP effects. Early effects were inconsistently reported for all factors. Feedback valence effects are more consistently reported for specific mid-latency ERPs (Reward Positivity, RewP, and Early Posterior Negativity, EPN) and late positivities (P3 and Late Positive Potential, LPP). Unexpected feedback consistently increased the Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) and, less consistently, decreased P3 amplitudes. Contextual relevance of the sender (e.g., human vs computer sender) or self-relatedness increased mid-latency to late ERPs. Interactions between valence and other factors were less often found, arising during mid-latency stages, where most consistent interactions showed larger EPN and P3 amplitude differences for valent feedback in a more relevant context. The ERP findings highlight that social evaluative feedback is consistently differentiated during mid-latency processing stages. The review discusses the relevance of findings, possible shortcomings of different experimental designs, and open questions. Furthermore, we suggest concrete venues for future research.

Manifestations, social impact, and decay of conceptual beliefs: A cultural perspective

INTRODUCTION

Believing comprises multifaceted processes that integrate information from the outside world through meaning-making processes with personal relevance.

METHODS

Qualitative Review of the current literature in social cognitive neuroscience.

RESULTS

Although believing develops rapidly outside an individual's conscious awareness, it results in the formation of beliefs that are stored in memory and play an important role in determining an individual's behavior. Primal beliefs reflect an individual's experience of objects and events, whereas conceptual beliefs are based on narratives that are held in social groups. Conceptual beliefs can be about autobiographical, political, religious, and other aspects of life and may be encouraged by participation in group rituals. We hypothesize that assertions of future gains and rewards that transcend but are inherent in these codices provide incentives to follow the norms and rules of social groups.

CONCLUSION

The power of conceptual beliefs to provide cultural orientation is likely to fade when circumstances and evidence make it clear that what was asserted no longer applies.

Brain Source Localization and Functional Connectivity in Group Identity Regulation of Overbidding in Contest

Contests may be highly effective in eliciting high levels of effort, but they also carry the risk of inefficient resource allocation due to excessive effort (overbidding), squandering valuable social resources. While a growing body of research has focused on how group identity exacerbates out-group conflict, its influence on in-group conflict remains relatively unexplored. This study endeavors to explore the impact of group identity on conflicts within and between groups in competitive environments, thereby addressing gaps in the current research landscape and dissecting the involved neurobiological mechanisms. By employing source localization and functional connectivity techniques, our research aims to identify the brain regions involved in competitive decision-making and group identity processes, as well as the functional connectivities between social brain areas. The results of our investigation revealed that participants exhibited activation in the bilateral frontal and prefrontal lobes during the bidding behavior before the group identity task. Subsequently, after the task, additional activation was observed in the right temporal lobe. Results from functional connectivity studies indicated that group identity tasks modify decision-making processes by promoting group norms, empathy, and blurred self-other boundaries for in-group decisions, while out-group decisions after the group identity task see heightened cognitive control, an increased dependence on rational judgment, introspection of self-environment relationships, and a greater focus on anticipating others' behaviors. This study reveals the widespread occurrence of overbidding behavior and demonstrates the role of group identity in mitigating this phenomenon, concurrently providing a comprehensive analysis of the underlying neural mechanisms.

Making Sense of Law: Critical Reflection on Neuroscience, Socialization, and Self

The development of sociotechnical codes by the legal system acts as a marker of good citizens and development of self where social norms matter. In most cases, despite cultural differences, socialization plays an important role in making sense of law. The question is, 'how does law come to mind and what is the role of brain? This question will be dealt keeping the debate on brain determinism and free will critically at the forefront.

Mentalizing in and out of awareness: A meta-analytic review of implicit and explicit mentalizing

BACKGROUND

Mentalizing, making sense of mental states, is hypothesized to have a central role in self-organization and social learning. Findings support this notion, but the extent of the association between mentalizing and various correlates has not been meta-analyzed. Furthermore, mentalizing presumably occurs with (explicit) and without (implicit) awareness but few studies have attempted to disentangle these aspects. We conducted a meta-analysis of implicit and explicit mentalizing in relation to the domains of attachment security, personality, affect, psychopathology, and functioning.

METHODS

We searched for studies of adult mentalizing in PsycINFO and in related reviews. Overall, 511 studies (N = 78,733) met criteria and were analyzed using multi-level meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Implicit (r = 0.19-0.29) and explicit (r = 0.26-0.40) mentalizing were moderately correlated with psychopathology, functioning, personality, affect, and attachment security. The correlations of implicit mentalizing were stronger with more objectively measured correlates (b = 0.02, p < .001) while the correlations of explicit mentalizing were not (b = -0.07, p = .21).

CONCLUSIONS

Mentalizing is associated with better intra- and interpersonal functioning. Implicit mentalizing is more strongly associated with objectively measured correlates. These findings underscore the importance of an integrative approach considering both implicit and explicit mentalizing.

Emotional arousal and reflective functioning among parents participating in attachment-based family therapy for LGBTQ+ young adults and their nonaccepting parents

OBJECTIVE

Parents' rejection of their LGBTQ + young adults can have a negative impact on their young adult's psychological welfare, and on the young adult-parent relationship. Parents' ability to reflect on their child's pain and unmet needs is thought to evoke empathy and compassion, and reduce rejection. Empirical and clinical evidence suggest that parents' level of reflective functioning (RF) is impacted by their level of emotional arousal (EA). This study examined the association between parents' EA and RF within the context of attachment-based family therapy for nonaccepting parents and their LGBTQ+ young adults.

METHODS

43 therapy sessions drawn from six different cases were coded for parental RF and EA, based on 30-second segments. This generated a total of 343 observations for analyses.

RESULTS

Hierarchal linear modeling revealed that parents' level of RF was a function of their concomitant EA, with moderate levels of arousal predicting the highest RF levels.

CONCLUSION

Moderate EA may facilitate optimal parental reflective functioning. With nonaccepting parents, who typically present for treatment with high levels of maladaptive fear and shame, therapists would do well to assess their level of arousal and, when indicated, employ downregulating interventions before inviting them to reflect on their young adult's experience and needs.

Diagnostic value of PET imaging in clinically unresponsive patients

Rapid advancements in the critical care management of acute brain injuries have facilitated the survival of numerous patients who may have otherwise succumbed to their injuries. The probability of conscious recovery hinges on the extent of structural brain damage and the level of metabolic and functional cerebral impairment, which remain challenging to assess via laboratory, clinical, or functional tests. Current research settings and guidelines highlight the potential value of fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET) for diagnostic and prognostic purposes, emphasizing its capacity to consistently illustrate a metabolic reduction in cerebral glucose uptake across various disorders of consciousness. Crucially, FDG-PET might be a pivotal tool for differentiating between patients in the minimally conscious state and those in the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, a persistent clinical challenge. In patients with disorders of consciousness, PET offers utility in evaluating the degree and spread of functional disruption, as well as identifying irreversible neural damage. Further, studies that capture responses to external stimuli can shed light on residual or revived brain functioning. Nevertheless, the validity of these findings in predicting clinical outcomes calls for additional long-term studies with larger patient cohorts suffering from consciousness impairment. Misdiagnosis of conscious illnesses during bedside clinical assessments remains a significant concern. Based on the clinical research settings, current clinical guidelines recommend PET for diagnostic and/or prognostic purposes. This review article discusses the clinical categories of conscious disorders and the diagnostic and prognostic value of PET imaging in clinically unresponsive patients, considering the known limitations of PET imaging in such contexts.

Mixed Selectivity Coding of Content-Temporal Detail by Dorsomedial Posterior Parietal Neurons

The dorsomedial posterior parietal cortex (dmPPC) is part of a higher-cognition network implicated in elaborate processes underpinning memory formation, recollection, episode reconstruction, and temporal information processing. Neural coding for complex episodic processing is however under-documented. Here, we recorded extracellular neural activities from three male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and revealed a set of neural codes of "neuroethogram" in the primate parietal cortex. Analyzing neural responses in macaque dmPPC to naturalistic videos, we discovered several groups of neurons that are sensitive to different categories of ethogram items, low-level sensory features, and saccadic eye movement. We also discovered that the processing of category and feature information by these neurons is sustained by the accumulation of temporal information over a long timescale of up to 30 s, corroborating its reported long temporal receptive windows. We performed an additional behavioral experiment with additional two male rhesus macaques and found that saccade-related activities could not account for the mixed neuronal responses elicited by the video stimuli. We further observed monkeys' scan paths and gaze consistency are modulated by video content. Taken altogether, these neural findings explain how dmPPC weaves fabrics of ongoing experiences together in real time. The high dimensionality of neural representations should motivate us to shift the focus of attention from pure selectivity neurons to mixed selectivity neurons, especially in increasingly complex naturalistic task designs.

Mentalizing can be Impaired in Patients with Meningiomas Originating in the Anterior Skull Base

OBJECTIVE

Mentalizing is an essential function of our social lives. Impairment of mentalizing due to meningiomas has not received attention because most patients return to their social lives after surgical treatment. We investigated the influence of meningiomas and their surgical resection on mentalizing.

METHODS

Low- and high-level mentalizing were retrospectively examined in 61 patients with meningiomas and 14 healthy volunteers. Mentalizing was assessed using the facial expression recognition test and picture arrangement test of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, third edition, before and after surgery. We examined the influence of tumor localization on mentalizing and recovery from mentalizing disorders after tumor resection. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping was performed to investigate the relationship between impairments in mentalizing and tumor location.

RESULTS

Before surgery, mentalizing was impaired significantly in patients with meningiomas compared to those in the control group (low-level: P = 0.015, high-level: P = 0.011). This impairment was associated with contact between the tumor and frontal lobe (low-level: P = 0.036, high-level: P = 0.047) and was severe in patients with tumors arising in the anterior skull base (low-level: P = 0.0045, high-level: P = 0.043). Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping revealed that when the basal cortex of the frontal lobe was compressed by the tumor, the risk of impaired mentalizing was high. The region responsible for high-level mentalizing was located deeper than that responsible for low-level mentalizing. After the surgical removal of the tumor, the test scores significantly improved (low-level: P = 0.035, high-level: P = 0.045).

CONCLUSIONS

Mentalizing was impaired by meningiomas arising from the anterior skull base, but it can improve after surgical resection of the tumors.

Religion and the brain: Jordan Grafman's contributions to religion and brain research and the special case of religious language

Grafman and colleagues' papers in religion and brain research have documented the extent to which religious beliefs and behaviors are mediated by standard social cognitive networks in brain. Grafman's work however also points beyond treatments of religious cognition as merely a species of more general social cognitive processes. Data emerging from experiments targeting mystical states as well as reports of encounters with supernatural agents during controlled experiments with psychedelics, suggest that brain mediation of mystical encounters with supernatural agents involves both disruption/downregulation of social cognitive networks and activation of an additional as yet only partially identified neural process suggesting that a full neuroscience account of religious beliefs, behaviors and experiences must extend beyond treatment of religion as an ordinary social process.

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Trust to Friends, Community Members, and Unknown Peers in Adolescence

Trust plays an important role during adolescence for developing social relations. Although prior developmental studies give us insight into adolescents' development of differentiation between close (e.g., friends) and unknown (e.g., unknown peers) targets in trust choices, less is known about the development of trust to societal targets (e.g., members of a community organization) and its underlying neural mechanisms. Using a modified version of the Trust Game, our preregistered fMRI study examined the underlying neural mechanisms of trust to close (friend), societal (community member), and unknown others (unknown peer) during adolescence in 106 participants (aged 12-23 years). Adolescents showed most trust to friends, less trust to community members, and the least trust to unknown peers. Neural results show that target differentiation in adolescents' trust behavior is associated with activity in social brain regions implicated during mentalizing, reward processing, and cognitive control. Recruitment of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and OFC was higher for closer targets (i.e., friend and community member). For the mPFC, this effect was most pronounced during no trust choices. Trust to friends was additionally associated with increased activity in the precuneus and bilateral temporal parietal junction. In contrast, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex were most active for trust to unknown peers. The mPFC showed increased activity with age and consistent relations with individual differences in feeling needed/useful.

Theta synchronization as a neural marker of flexible (re-)use of socio-cognitive mechanisms for a new category of (artificial) interaction partners

Previous work shows that in some instances artificial agents, such as robots, can elicit higher-order socio-cognitive mechanisms, similar to those elicited by humans. This suggests that these socio-cognitive mechanisms, such as mentalizing processes, originally developed for interaction with other humans, might be flexibly (re-)used, or "hijacked", for approaching this new category of interaction partners (Wykowska, 2020). In this study, we set out to identify neural markers of such flexible reuse of socio-cognitive mechanisms. We focused on fronto-parietal theta synchronization, as it has been proposed to be a substrate of cognitive flexibility in general (Fries, 2005). We analyzed EEG data from two experiments (Bossi et al., 2020; Roselli et al., submitted), in which participants completed a test measuring their individual likelihood to adopt the intentional stance towards robots, the intentional stance (IST) test. Our results show that participants with higher scores on the IST, indicating that they had higher likelihood of adopting the intentional stance towards a robot, had a significantly higher theta synchronization value, relative to participants with lower scores on the IST. These results suggest that long-range synchronization in the theta band might be a marker socio-cognitive process that can be flexibly applied towards non-human agents, such as robots.

Learning from in-group and out-group models induces separative effects on human mate copying

Mate copying is a social learning process in which individuals gather public information about potential mates by observing models' choices. Previous studies have reported that individual attributes of female models affect mate copying, yet little is known about whether and how the group attributes of models influence mate copying. In the current behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, female participants were asked to rate their willingness to choose the depicted males as potential romantic partners before and after observing in-group or out-group female models accepting, rejecting or being undecided (baseline) about the males. Results showed that participants changed their ratings to align with the models' acceptance or rejection choices. Compared to rejection copying, the effect of acceptance copying was stronger and regulated by in- and out-group models, manifesting a discounting copying effect when learning from out-group models. At the neural level, for acceptance copying, stronger temporoparietal junction (TPJ) activity and connectivity between TPJ and anterior medial prefrontal cortex (amPFC) were observed when female models belonged to out-group members; meanwhile, the functional connection of TPJ and amPFC positively predicted the rating changes when learning from out-group models. The results indicated that participants might need more resources to infer out-group members' intentions to overcome the in-group bias during acceptance copying.

When shapes are more than shapes: perceptual, developmental, and neurophysiological basis for attributions of animacy and theory of mind

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.

Dissociation of vicarious and experienced rewards by coupling frequency within the same neural pathway

Vicarious reward, essential to social learning and decision making, is theorized to engage select brain regions similarly to experienced reward to generate a shared experience. However, it is just as important for neural systems to also differentiate vicarious from experienced rewards for social interaction. Here, we investigated the neuronal interaction between the primate anterior cingulate cortex gyrus (ACCg) and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) when social choices made by monkeys led to either vicarious or experienced reward. Coherence between ACCg spikes and BLA local field potential (LFP) selectively increased in gamma frequencies for vicarious reward, whereas it selectively increased in alpha/beta frequencies for experienced reward. These respectively enhanced couplings for vicarious and experienced rewards were uniquely observed following voluntary choices. Moreover, reward outcomes had consistently strong directional influences from ACCg to BLA. Our findings support a mechanism of vicarious reward where social agency is tagged by interareal coordination frequency within the same shared pathway.

Mentalizing in Adolescents and Young Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Associations with Age and Attention Problems

INTRODUCTION

Growing, albeit heterogenous evidence questions whether attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with socio-cognitive impairments, especially beyond childhood. This study focuses on mentalizing - the socio-cognitive ability to attribute and reason in terms of mental states. We aimed to characterize mentalizing performance in terms of correct scores and types of errors in adolescents and young adults with ADHD.

METHODS

Forty-nine adolescents and adults with ADHD and 49 healthy controls matched for age and gender completed a computerized naturalistic mentalizing task, the Movie for Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC). Repeated measures analyses of variance examined the effects of age group and ADHD diagnosis on MASC performance. Additionally, associations between mentalizing scores, the severity of attention problems, and the presence of comorbidity were explored in the ADHD group.

RESULTS

Results showed an increased prevalence of hypomentalizing errors in adolescents with ADHD. Lower mentalizing scores in adolescents with ADHD were correlated with indices of inattentiveness, impulsivity, and vigilance problems. Hypomentalizing errors in adolescents showed to be particularly associated with inattentiveness, after controlling for age and comorbidity. In contrast, adults with ADHD performed similarly to controls and their scores on the mentalizing task were not correlated to attention problems.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight potential developmental differences in mentalizing abilities in ADHD youths and their association with attentional impairments.

Mother-infant interaction context matters for verbal and non-verbal parental mentalization: an initial portrait of associations between parental embodied mentalizing, mind-mindedness, and maternal characteristics in a structured and unstructured context

Introduction

Interest in studying the parental embodied mentalizing (PEM), which refers to implicit and non-verbal processes of parental mentalization, is relatively recent. Therefore, little is known about how PEM, in complementarity with the verbal parental mentalization, is associated with maternal characteristics regarding mother-infant interaction contexts. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the associations between the non-verbal and verbal dimensions of parental mentalization- PEM and mind-mindedness, respectively, - in relation to a wide spectrum of parental characteristics in different interactive mother-infant contexts (toys and no toys).

Methods

Among a sample of 107 mother-infant dyads at moderate psychosocial risk, mothers' sociodemographic information (age, education, and income), psychological characteristics (depression and anxiety), cognitions (self-efficacy and perceived maternal impact), and attitudes (overprotection and parental warmth) were assessed via self-report questionnaires when the infant was 4 and 8 months old. The PEM and mind-mindedness were evaluated through observation made during a videorecorded sequence of mother-infant interaction in a context of free play with and without toys at 8 months of age.

Results

The results showed distinct associations between PEM and mind-mindedness regarding maternal characteristics: PEM was associated with the mother's age, education, anxiety and maternal warmth, whereas mind-mindedness was related to cognitions. Both were linked to family income. Regarding mother-infant interaction contexts (toys vs. no toys), the results indicate that the capacity to verbally and non-verbally mentalize differs.

Discussion

These findings shed light on distinctive associations between non-verbal and verbal parental mentalization in relation to certain maternal characteristics, and highlight that the mother-infant interaction context may play an important role in the expression of maternal mentalizing capacity.

How, when and why abilities go social: researching children's empathy and prosocial behaviors in context

Introduction

The current paper undertakes interdisciplinary research on empathy in children by combining insights and methodological tools from the fields of psychology, education and anthropology. The researchers aim to map how children's individual empathic abilities studied on a cognitive level do or do not coincide with their empathic expressions as part of group dynamics in daily life at the classroom level.

Method

We combined qualitative and quantitative methods within three different classrooms at three different schools. In total, 77 children aged between 9 to 12 years participated.

Results

The results indicate how such an interdisciplinary approach can provide unique insights. Through the integration of data from our different research tools we could reveal the interplay between different levels. More specifically this meant showing the possible influence of rule-based prosocial behaviors versus empathy based prosocial behaviors, the interplay between community empathic abilities and individual empathic abilities, and the role of peer culture and school culture.

Discussion

These insights can be seen as encouragement toward a research approach that extends beyond the single disciplinary field in social science research.

The role of the prefrontal cortex in social interactions of animal models and the implications for autism spectrum disorder

Social interaction is a complex behavior which requires the individual to integrate various internal processes, such as social motivation, social recognition, salience, reward, and emotional state, as well as external cues informing the individual of others' behavior, emotional state and social rank. This complex phenotype is susceptible to disruption in humans affected by neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Multiple pieces of convergent evidence collected from studies of humans and rodents suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a pivotal role in social interactions, serving as a hub for motivation, affiliation, empathy, and social hierarchy. Indeed, disruption of the PFC circuitry results in social behavior deficits symptomatic of ASD. Here, we review this evidence and describe various ethologically relevant social behavior tasks which could be employed with rodent models to study the role of the PFC in social interactions. We also discuss the evidence linking the PFC to pathologies associated with ASD. Finally, we address specific questions regarding mechanisms employed by the PFC circuitry that may result in atypical social interactions in rodent models, which future studies should address.

Social cognitive neuroscience in the digital age

Human interactions are increasingly taking place from a distance through methods of remote interpersonal communication like video chatting and social media. While remote interpersonal communication has existed for millennia-with the first postal system arising in ∼2400 B.C.-accelerated advances in technology and the recent global COVID-19 pandemic have led to a dramatic increase in remote interpersonal communication use in daily life. Remote interpersonal communication presents a challenge to the field of social-cognitive neuroscience, as researchers seek to understand the implications of various types of remote interpersonal communication for the "social brain." The present paper reviews our current understanding of the social-cognitive neural network and summarizes critical differences between the neural correlates of social cognition in remote vs. face-to-face interactions. In particular, empirical and theoretical work is reviewed that highlight disparities in the neural mechanisms of social perception, evaluation of social stimuli, human motivation, evaluation of social reward, and theory of mind. Potential impacts of remote interpersonal communication on the development of the brain's social-cognitive network are also discussed. Finally, this review closes with future directions for research on social-cognitive neuroscience in our digital technology-connected world and outlines a neural model for social cognition in the context of remote interpersonal communication. For the field of social-cognitive neuroscience to advance alongside of the ever-evolving society, it is crucial for researchers to acknowledge the implications and concepts suggested for future research in this review.

Associations of Empathy with Teacher-Student Interactions: A Potential Ternary Model

Empathy has garnered increasing recognition as a pivotal component of teacher-student interactions and a notable determinant of student achievement. Nevertheless, the exact impact of empathy on teacher-student interactions remains elusive, despite research endeavors into the neural mechanisms of teacher empathy. Our article examines the cognitive neural processes of teacher empathy during various forms of teacher-student interactions. To this end, we first present a concise review of theoretical considerations related to empathy and interactions, followed by an extensive discussion of teacher-student interactions and teacher empathy through both "single-brain" and "dual-brain" perspectives. Drawing on these discussions, we propose a potential model of empathy that integrates the affective contagion, cognitive evaluation, and behavior prediction aspects of teacher-student interactions. Finally, future research directions are discussed.

Suicidal ideation in Chinese adults with schizophrenia: associations with neurocognitive function and empathy

BACKGROUND

Suicidal ideation is common among people diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and may be related to neurocognitive, social cognitive, and clinical variables. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between suicidal ideation and both neurocognitive function and empathy.

METHODS

The sample for this cross-sectional study comprised 301 schizophrenic patients aged 18-44 years. All participants were administered the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation-Chinese Version (BSI-CV), the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The demographic and clinical data of the patients were also collected.

RESULTS

In total, 82 patients reported suicidal ideation. Compared to patients without suicidal ideation, patients with suicidal ideation showed significant differences in the IRI-Personal Distress subscale, PANSS-General Psychopathology symptom scores, and suicide attempts. Moreover, there were moderating effects of neurocognitive function and empathy on the relationship between suicide attempts and suicidal ideation.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that the personal distress component of empathy, general psychopathology symptoms and suicide attempts are independent risk factors for suicidal ideation in Chinese adults with schizophrenia. Moreover, neurocognitive function may also be related to suicidal ideation through a moderating relationship. In order to reduce suicidal ideation among patients with schizophrenia, early screening of empathy and neurocognitive function is essential.

l-DOPA and oxytocin influence the neurocomputational mechanisms of self-benefitting and prosocial reinforcement learning

Humans learn through reinforcement, particularly when outcomes are unexpected. Recent research suggests similar mechanisms drive how we learn to benefit other people, that is, how we learn to be prosocial. Yet the neurochemical mechanisms underlying such prosocial computations remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether pharmacological manipulation of oxytocin and dopamine influence the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying self-benefitting and prosocial reinforcement learning. Using a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design, we administered intranasal oxytocin (24 IU), dopamine precursor l-DOPA (100 mg + 25 mg carbidopa), or placebo over three sessions. Participants performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning task with potential rewards for themselves, another participant, or no one, during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Computational models of reinforcement learning were used to calculate prediction errors (PEs) and learning rates. Participants behavior was best explained by a model with different learning rates for each recipient, but these were unaffected by either drug. On the neural level, however, both drugs blunted PE signaling in the ventral striatum and led to negative signaling of PEs in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal gyrus, and precentral gyrus, compared to placebo, and regardless of recipient. Oxytocin (versus placebo) administration was additionally associated with opposing tracking of self-benefitting versus prosocial PEs in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula and superior temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that both l-DOPA and oxytocin induce a context-independent shift from positive towards negative tracking of PEs during learning. Moreover, oxytocin may have opposing effects on PE signaling when learning to benefit oneself versus another.

Interactions within the social brain: Co-activation and connectivity among networks enabling empathy and Theory of Mind

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.

A manifesto for applying behavioural science

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of behavioural science to address the priorities of public and private sector actors. There is now a vibrant ecosystem of practitioners, teams and academics building on each other's findings across the globe. Their focus on robust evaluation means we know that this work has had an impact on important issues such as antimicrobial resistance, educational attainment and climate change. However, several critiques have also emerged; taken together, they suggest that applied behavioural science needs to evolve further over its next decade. This manifesto for the future of applied behavioural science looks at the challenges facing the field and sets out ten proposals to address them. Meeting these challenges will mean that behavioural science is better equipped to help to build policies, products and services on stronger empirical foundations-and thereby address the world's crucial challenges.

The impact of loneliness and social adaptation on depressive symptoms: Behavioral and brain measures evidence from a brain health perspective

Introduction

Early detection of depression is a cost-effective way to prevent adverse outcomes on brain physiology, cognition, and health. Here we propose that loneliness and social adaptation are key factors that can anticipate depressive symptoms.

Methods

We analyzed data from two separate samples to evaluate the associations between loneliness, social adaptation, depressive symptoms, and their neural correlates.

Results

For both samples, hierarchical regression models on self-reported data showed that loneliness and social adaptation have negative and positive effects on depressive symptoms. Moreover, social adaptation reduces the impact of loneliness on depressive symptoms. Structural connectivity analysis showed that depressive symptoms, loneliness, and social adaptation share a common neural substrate. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis demonstrated that only social adaptation was associated with connectivity in parietal areas.

Discussion

Altogether, our results suggest that loneliness is a strong risk factor for depressive symptoms while social adaptation acts as a buffer against the ill effects of loneliness. At the neuroanatomical level, loneliness and depression may affect the integrity of white matter structures known to be associated to emotion dysregulation and cognitive impairment. On the other hand, socio-adaptive processes may protect against the harmful effects of loneliness and depression. Structural and functional correlates of social adaptation could indicate a protective role through long and short-term effects, respectively. These findings may aid approaches to preserve brain health via social participation and adaptive social behavior.

Exploring and Deepening the Facets of Mentalizing: The Integration of Network and Factorial Analysis Approaches to Verify the Psychometric Properties of the Multidimensional Mentalizing Questionnaire (MMQ)

Mentalization is a complex and multifaceted trans-theoretical and trans-diagnostic construct that has found increasing application in the clinical context. This research aimed at deepening the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Mentalizing Questionnaire (MMQ), a 33-item theoretically based self-report questionnaire allowing for a comprehensive assessment of mentalizing, by integrating factor analysis and network analysis approaches. A sample of 1640 participants (M_age = 33 years; SD = 13.28) was involved in the research. The six-factor structure was confirmed for the MMQ, and both the total and the subdimensions demonstrated good reliability. The network analysis has further enriched these results, showing the central role of the items attributable to Emotional Dysregulation or Reflexivity in influencing the network as well as the contribution of aspects related to Relational Discomfort in managing the flow of communication flow. Such findings may have useful clinical implications and emphasize the usefulness of the MMQ in both research and clinical practice.

Theory of brain complexity and marital behaviors: The application of complexity science and neuroscience to explain the complexities of marital behaviors

The extant theories on the quality and stability of marital relationships have some difficulties in explaining some of the complexities of marital behaviors. The present article is an initial attempt to explain the complexities of marital behaviors based on the science of complexity and neuroscience. This article proposes a new theoretical framework relying on this simple argument that marital behaviors, as one of the most complex human behaviors, are the product of one's brain's complex adaptive system (CAS). Hence, to understand the complexities of marital behaviors, a movement toward familiarity with the brain's CAS involved in marital behaviors needs to be started. The article presents the theory of brain complexity and marital behaviors (BCM) and outlines its assumptions, concepts, and propositions. Then, BCM is compared with the extant theories on happy and stable marriage, and finally, it was concluded by discussing the testability and the potential application of the theory. This article might inspire interdisciplinary studies of marital relationships, complex systems, and neuroscience and may have considerable practical implications.

The impact of sociality and affective valence on brain activation: A meta-analysis

Thirty years of neuroimaging reveal the set of brain regions consistently associated with pleasant and unpleasant affect in humans-or the neural reference space for valence. Yet some of humans' most potent affective states occur in the context of other humans. Prior work has yet to differentiate how the neural reference space for valence varies as a product of the sociality of affective stimuli. To address this question, we meta-analyzed across 614 social and non-social affective neuroimaging contrasts, summarizing the brain regions that are consistently activated for social and non-social affective information. We demonstrate that across the literature, social and non-social affective stimuli yield overlapping activations within regions associated with visceromotor control, including the amygdala, hypothalamus, anterior cingulate cortex and insula. However, we find that social processing differs from non-social affective processing in that it involves additional cortical activations in the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulum that have been associated with mentalizing and prediction. A Bayesian classifier was able to differentiate unpleasant from pleasant affect, but not social from non-social affective states. Moreover, it was not able to classify unpleasantness from pleasantness at the highest levels of sociality. These findings suggest that highly social scenarios may be equally salient to humans, regardless of their valence.

Social goals in girls transitioning to adolescence: associations with psychopathology and brain network connectivity

The motivation to socially connect with peers increases during adolescence in parallel with changes in neurodevelopment. These changes in social motivation create opportunities for experiences that can impact risk for psychopathology, but the specific motivational presentations that confer greater psychopathology risk are not fully understood. To address this issue, we used a latent profile analysis to identify the multidimensional presentations of self-reported social goals in a sample of 220 girls (9-15 years old, M = 11.81, SD = 1.81) that was enriched for internalizing symptoms, and tested the association between social goal profiles and psychopathology. Associations between social goals and brain network connectivity were also examined in a subsample of 138 youth. Preregistered analyses revealed four unique profiles of social goal presentations in these girls. Greater psychopathology was associated with heightened social goals such that higher clinical symptoms were related to a greater desire to attain social competence, avoid negative feedback and gain positive feedback from peers. The profiles endorsing these excessive social goals were characterized by denser connections among social-affective and cognitive control brain regions. These findings thus provide preliminary support for adolescent-onset changes in motivating factors supporting social engagement that may contribute to risk for psychopathology in vulnerable girls.

The role of oxytocin in modulating self-other distinction in human brain: a pharmacological fMRI study

Self-other distinction is crucial for human interaction. Although with conflicting results, studies have found that oxytocin (OT) sharpens the self-other perceptual boundary. However, little is known about the effect of OT on self-other perception, especially its neural basis. Moreover, it is unclear whether OT influences self-other discrimination when the other is a child or an adult. This double-blind, placebo-controlled study investigated the effect of OT on self-face perception at the behavioral and neural levels. For the stimuli, we morphed participants' faces and child or adult strangers' faces, resulting in 4 conditions. After treatment with either OT or placebo, participants reported whether a stimulus resembled themselves while being scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Behavioral results showed that people judged adult-morphed faces better than child-morphed faces. Moreover, fMRI results showed that the OT group exhibited increased activity in visual areas and the inferior frontal gyrus for self-faces. This difference was more pronounced in the adult-face condition. In multivariate fMRI and region of interest analyses, better performance in the OT group indicated that OT increased self-other distinction, especially for adult faces and in the left hemisphere. Our study shows a significant effect of OT on self-referential processes, proving the potential effect of OT on a left hemisphere self-network.

[Disorders of social cognition in children]

The article presents an overview of scientific publications devoted to the study of social cognition as a separate cognitive function and its role in the formation of normal mental development. Modern ideas about the « theory of mind « and its neurobiological foundations are considered. The results of studies of social competence in children with autism, specific language impairment, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and specific learning disorder are presented. The main neurocognitive deficits observed in violation of social cognition in children and the possibility of their pharmacological correction are considered.

Probing the association between maternal anxious attachment style and mother-child brain-to-brain coupling during passive co-viewing of visual stimuli

Brain-to-brain coupling during co-viewing of video stimuli reflects similar intersubjective mentalisation processes. During an everyday joint activity of watching video stimuli (television shows) with her child, an anxiously attached mother's preoccupation with her child is likely to distract her from understanding the mental state of characters in the show. To test the hypothesis that reduced coupling in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) would be observed with increasing maternal attachment anxiety (MAA), we profiled mothers' MAA using the Attachment Style Questionnaire and used functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess PFC coupling in 31 mother-child dyads while they watched three 1-min animation videos together. Reduced coupling was observed with increasing MAA in the medial right PFC cluster which is implicated in mentalisation processes. This result did not survive control analyses and should be taken as preliminary. Reduced coupling between anxiously-attached mothers and their children during co-viewing could undermine quality of shared experiences.

The impact of briefly observing faces in opaque facial masks on emotion recognition and empathic concern

Since the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, there have been global public health initiatives that have advocated for the community use of face masks to reduce spread of the virus. Although the community use of facial coverings has been deemed essential for public health, there have been calls for enquiries to ascertain how face masks may impact non-verbal methods of communication. This study aimed to ascertain how the brief observations of faces in opaque facial coverings could impact facial emotion recognition. It was also an aim to ascertain if there was an association between the levels of empathic concern and facial emotion recognition when viewing masked faces. An opportunity sample of 199 participants, who resided in the United Kingdom, were randomly assigned to briefly observe either masked (n = 102) or unmasked (n = 97) faces. Participants in both conditions were required to view a series of facial expressions, from the Radboud Faces Database, with models conveying the emotional states of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprised. Each face was presented to participants for a period of 250 ms in the masked and unmasked conditions. A 6 (emotion type) x 2 (masked/unmasked condition) mixed ANOVA revealed that viewing masked faces significantly reduced facial emotion recognition of disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprised. However, there were no differences in the success rate of recognising the emotional state of anger between the masked and unmasked conditions. Furthermore, higher levels of empathic concern were associated with greater success in facially recognising the emotional state of disgust. The results of this study suggest that significant reductions in emotion recognition, when viewing faces in opaque masks, can still be observed when people are exposed to facial stimuli for a brief period of time.

Explicit vs. implicit spatial processing in arrow vs. eye-gaze spatial congruency effects

Arrows and gaze stimuli lead to opposite spatial congruency effects. While standard congruency effects are observed for arrows (faster responses for congruent conditions), responses are faster when eye-gaze stimuli are presented on the opposite side of the gazed-at location (incongruent trials), leading to a reversed congruency effect (RCE). Here, we explored the effects of implicit vs. explicit processing of arrows and eye-gaze direction. Participants were required to identify the direction (explicit task) or the colour (implicit task) of left or right looking/pointing gaze or arrows, presented to either the left or right of the fixation point. When participants responded to the direction of stimuli, standard congruency effects for arrows and RCE for eye-gaze stimuli were observed. However, when participants responded to the colour of stimuli, no congruency effects were observed. These results suggest that it is necessary to explicitly pay attention to the direction of eye-gaze and arrows for the congruency effect to occur. The same pattern of data was observed when participants responded either manually or verbally, demonstrating that manual motor components are not responsible for the results observed. These findings are not consistent with some hypotheses previously proposed to explain the RCE observed with eye-gaze stimuli and, therefore, call for an alternative plausible hypothesis.

Similarity in activity and laterality patterns in the angular gyrus during autobiographical memory retrieval and self-referential processing

Long-term memory is arguably one of the key cognitive functions. At the neural level, the lateral parietal cortex and the angular gyrus, particularly in the left hemisphere, exhibit strong activations during autobiographical and episodic memory retrieval. In a separate sub-field, left-lateralized activations of the angular gyrus are also found during self-referential processing, defined as higher activity when a trait term is judged by participants as being related to them vs. related to someone else. The question is whether episodic/autobiographical memory retrieval and self-referential processing effects are related. In the present study, thirty participants participated in the fMRI study with two separate experiments: autobiographical memory retrieval (Experiment 1) and self-referential processing (Experiment 2). In a series of analyses, including the most critical spatial correlation analysis between experiments, we found neural similarity between autobiographical memory retrieval and self-referential processing. Given that self-referential processing was identified in a selective way, the most plausible interpretation of our findings is that self-referential processing might partly explain the activation of the left angular gyrus during autobiographical memory retrieval. Our results are in line with the seminal view of Endel Tulving that the sense of self is a fundamental attribute of long-term memory recollection. However, it should be emphasized that: a) our results do not imply that the left angular gyrus is not involved in the retrieval of episodic memory details; and b) given that our experiment included an autobiographical memory task, generalization of our results to the episodic memory laboratory tasks has yet to be tested.

Effects of Alcohol Intoxication on Sexual Decision-Making among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM): Alcohol's Influences on Self-Control Processes

This experiment tested mechanisms linking alcohol intoxication and analogue determinants of condomless anal intercourse (CAI) in a sample of 257 men who have sex with men (MSM). The two mechanisms tested were implicit approach biases toward CAI stimuli and executive working memory. Participants were randomized to 3 conditions (water control, placebo, or alcohol) and following beverage administration completed a working memory task, an Approach Avoidance Task of sexual vs. condom stimuli, and two video role-play vignettes of high-risk sexual scenarios. Sexual arousal and CAI intentions were assessed by self-report, and behavioral skills and risk exposure were derived from participants' role-play behavior. Estimation of four path models showed that the hypothesized mechanisms were supported for the CAI intention outcome, but the findings for the skills and risk exposure outcome were mixed. Implications for development and enhancement of HIV prevention interventions were discussed.

Functional specialization of parallel distributed networks revealed by analysis of trial-to-trial variation in processing demands

Multiple large-scale networks populate human association cortex. Here, we explored the functional properties of these networks by exploiting trial-to-trial variation in component-processing demands. In two behavioral studies (n = 136 and n = 238), participants quantified strategies used to solve individual task trials that spanned remembering, imagining future scenarios, and various control trials. These trials were also all scanned in an independent sample of functional MRI participants (n = 10), each with sufficient data to precisely define within-individual networks. Stable latent factors varied across trials and correlated with trial-level functional responses selectively across networks. One network linked to parahippocampal cortex, labeled Default Network A (DN-A), tracked scene construction, including for control trials that possessed minimal episodic memory demands. To the degree, a trial encouraged participants to construct a mental scene with imagery and awareness about spatial locations of objects or places, the response in DN-A increased. The juxtaposed Default Network B (DN-B) showed no such response but varied in relation to social processing demands. Another adjacent network, labeled Frontoparietal Network B (FPN-B), robustly correlated with trial difficulty. These results support that DN-A and DN-B are specialized networks differentially supporting information processing within spatial and social domains. Both networks are dissociable from a closely juxtaposed domain-general control network that tracks cognitive effort.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Tasks shown to differentially recruit parallel association networks are multifaceted, leaving open questions about network processes. Here, examining trial-to-trial network response properties in relation to trial traits reveals new insights into network functions. In particular, processes linked to scene construction selectively recruit a distributed network with links to parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortices, including during trials designed not to rely on the personal past. Adjacent networks show distinct patterns, providing novel evidence of functional specialization.