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Wisner KM, Johnson MK, Porter JN, Krueger RF, MacDonald AW. Task-related neural mechanisms of persecutory ideation in schizophrenia and community monozygotic twin-pairs. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:5244-5263. [PMID: 34331484 PMCID: PMC8519853 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2020] [Revised: 07/05/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Perceptions of spiteful behavior are common, distinct from rational fear, and may undergird persecutory ideation. To test this hypothesis and investigate neural mechanisms of persecutory ideation, we employed a novel economic social decision‐making task, the Minnesota Trust Game (MTG), during neuroimaging in patients with schizophrenia (n = 30) and community monozygotic (MZ) twins (n = 38; 19 pairs). We examined distinct forms of mistrust, task‐related brain activation and connectivity, and investigated relationships with persecutory ideation. We tested whether co‐twin discordance on these measurements was correlated to reflect a common source of underlying variance. Across samples persecutory ideation was associated with reduced trust only during the suspiciousness condition, which assessed spite sensitivity given partners had no monetary incentive to betray. Task‐based activation contrasts for specific forms of mistrust were limited and unrelated to persecutory ideation. However, task‐based connectivity contrasts revealed a dorsal cingulate anterior insula network sensitive to suspicious mistrust, a left frontal–parietal (lF‐P) network sensitive to rational mistrust, and a ventral medial/orbital prefrontal (vmPFC/OFC) network that was sensitive to the difference between these forms of mistrust (all p < .005). Higher persecutory ideation was predicted only by reduced connectivity between the vmPFC/OFC and lF‐P networks (p = .005), which was only observed when the intentions of the other player were relevant. Moreover, co‐twin differences in persecutory ideation predicted co‐twin differences in both spite sensitivity and in vmPFC/OFC–lF‐P connectivity. This work found that interconnectivity may be particularly important to the complex neurobiology underlying persecutory ideation, and that unique environmental variance causally linked persecutory ideation, decision‐making, and brain connectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krista M Wisner
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
| | | | - James N Porter
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Robert F Krueger
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Angus W MacDonald
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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2
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Shang J, Li Y. The effects of participants' sex and the facial trustworthiness of proposers on third-party decision-making in a dictator game. Psych J 2020; 9:877-884. [PMID: 32779398 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2019] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 06/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated the effects of participants' sex and the facial trustworthiness of proposers on third-party decision-making. Sixty-three participants participated in this study. The participant's task was to act as an interest-free third party who observed a dictator game in which proposers with either trustworthy or untrustworthy faces made offers to recipients, to evaluate the reasonableness of the offers, and to express their intentions to punish the proposers. The results showed that offers from trustworthy proposers were rated as more reasonable than offers from untrustworthy proposers. Similarly, the participants were more likely to punish untrustworthy proposers than trustworthy proposers. In addition, there was a trend that male participants punished proposers more severely than female participants when proposers made unfair offers. These results demonstrate that an individual's facial trustworthiness affects other people's judgment and decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junchen Shang
- School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, 850 Huanghe Road, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Yutong Li
- School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, 850 Huanghe Road, Dalian, 116029, China
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3
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Park G, Marsh BU, Johnson EJ. Enhanced Memory for Fair-Related Faces and the Role of Trait Anxiety. Front Psychol 2019; 10:760. [PMID: 31057449 PMCID: PMC6477062 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2018] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The current research examined whether fair consideration-a social norm that people inherently prefer to confirm-would modulate face recognition. Each neutral face was associated with fair or unfair offers via an economic decision task, the Ultimatum Game (UG) task. After the UG, participants were asked to identify the faces of proposers who made different offers. Enhanced memory was observed for fair-related compared to unfair-related faces. Furthermore, high trait anxiety was associated with reduced memory for fair-related faces. These results were further confirmed by signal detection theory. The current research provided initial evidence that people showed enhanced memory for faces that made fair offers from the economic decision task, and that high trait anxiety was associated with reduced fair-related memory. Possible neural mechanisms and the implication in economic and social situations have been discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gewnhi Park
- Department of Psychology, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, United States
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4
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Changing our minds: the neural bases of dynamic impression updating. Curr Opin Psychol 2018; 24:72-76. [DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2018] [Revised: 08/14/2018] [Accepted: 08/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Sacré P, Subramanian S, Kerr MSD, Kahn K, Johnson MA, Bulacio J, González-Martínez JA, Sarma SV, Gale JT. The influences and neural correlates of past and present during gambling in humans. Sci Rep 2017; 7:17111. [PMID: 29214997 PMCID: PMC5719351 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16862-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2017] [Accepted: 11/19/2017] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
During financial decision-making tasks, humans often make "rational" decisions, where they maximize expected reward. However, this rationality may compete with a bias that reflects past outcomes. That is, if one just lost money or won money, this may impact future decisions. It is unclear how past outcomes influence future decisions in humans, and how neural circuits encode present and past information. In this study, six human subjects performed a financial decision-making task while we recorded local field potentials from multiple brain structures. We constructed a model for each subject characterizing bets on each trial as a function of present and past information. The models suggest that some patients are more influenced by previous trial outcomes (i.e., previous return and risk) than others who stick to more fixed decision strategies. In addition, past return and present risk modulated with the activity in the cuneus; while present return and past risk modulated with the activity in the superior temporal gyrus and the angular gyrus, respectively. Our findings suggest that these structures play a role in decision-making beyond their classical functions by incorporating predictions and risks in humans' decision strategy, and provide new insight into how humans link their internal biases to decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Sacré
- Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA.
| | - Sandya Subramanian
- Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA
| | - Matthew S D Kerr
- Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA
| | - Kevin Kahn
- Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA
| | - Matthew A Johnson
- Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, 44195, USA
| | - Juan Bulacio
- Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, 44195, USA
| | | | - Sridevi V Sarma
- Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA.
| | - John T Gale
- Department of Neurosurgery, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 30322, USA
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The Role of the Amygdala in Facial Trustworthiness Processing: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of fMRI Studies. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0167276. [PMID: 27898705 PMCID: PMC5127572 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2016] [Accepted: 11/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Faces play a key role in signaling social cues such as signals of trustworthiness. Although several studies identify the amygdala as a core brain region in social cognition, quantitative approaches evaluating its role are scarce. Objectives This review aimed to assess the role of the amygdala in the processing of facial trustworthiness, by analyzing its amplitude BOLD response polarity to untrustworthy versus trustworthy facial signals under fMRI tasks through a Meta-analysis of effect sizes (MA). Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) analyses were also conducted. Data sources Articles were retrieved from MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and Web-of-Science in January 2016. Following the PRISMA statement guidelines, a systematic review of original research articles in English language using the search string “(face OR facial) AND (trustworthiness OR trustworthy OR untrustworthy OR trustee) AND fMRI” was conducted. Study selection and data extraction The MA concerned amygdala responses to facial trustworthiness for the contrast Untrustworthy vs. trustworthy faces, and included whole-brain and ROI studies. To prevent potential bias, results were considered even when at the single study level they did not survive correction for multiple comparisons or provided non-significant results. ALE considered whole-brain studies, using the same methodology to prevent bias. A summary of the methodological options (design and analysis) described in the articles was finally used to get further insight into the characteristics of the studies and to perform a subgroup analysis. Data were extracted by two authors and checked independently. Data synthesis Twenty fMRI studies were considered for systematic review. An MA of effect sizes with 11 articles (12 studies) showed high heterogeneity between studies [Q(11) = 265.68, p < .0001; I2 = 95.86%, 94.20% to 97.05%, with 95% confidence interval, CI]. Random effects analysis [RE(183) = 0.851, .422 to .969, 95% CI] supported the evidence that the (right) amygdala responds preferentially to untrustworthy faces. Moreover, two ALE analyses performed with 6 articles (7 studies) identified the amygdala, insula and medial dorsal nuclei of thalamus as structures with negative correlation with trustworthiness. Six articles/studies showed that posterior cingulate and medial frontal gyrus present positive correlations with increasing facial trustworthiness levels. Significant effects considering subgroup analysis based on methodological criteria were found for experiments using spatial smoothing, categorization of trustworthiness in 2 or 3 categories and paradigms which involve both explicit and implicit tasks. Limitations Significant heterogeneity between studies was found in MA, which might have arisen from inclusion of studies with smaller sample sizes and differences in methodological options. Studies using ROI analysis / small volume correction methods were more often devoted specifically to the amygdala region, with some results reporting uncorrected p-values based on mainly clinical a priori evidence of amygdala involvement in these processes. Nevertheless, we did not find significant evidence for publication bias. Conclusions and implications of key findings Our results support the role of amygdala in facial trustworthiness judgment, emphasizing its predominant role during processing of negative social signals in (untrustworthy) faces. This systematic review suggests that little consistency exists among studies’ methodology, and that larger sample sizes should be preferred.
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7
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Sacré P, Kerr MSD, Kahn K, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Bulacio J, Park HJ, Johnson MA, Thompson S, Jones J, Chib VS, Gale JT, Sarma SV. Lucky Rhythms in Orbitofrontal Cortex Bias Gambling Decisions in Humans. Sci Rep 2016; 6:36206. [PMID: 27830753 PMCID: PMC5103224 DOI: 10.1038/srep36206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2016] [Accepted: 10/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
It is well established that emotions influence our decisions, yet the neural basis of this biasing effect is not well understood. Here we directly recorded local field potentials from the OrbitoFrontal Cortex (OFC) in five human subjects performing a financial decision-making task. We observed a striking increase in gamma-band (36-50 Hz) oscillatory activity that reflected subjects' decisions to make riskier choices. Additionally, these gamma rhythms were linked back to mismatched expectations or "luck" occurring in past trials. Specifically, when a subject expected to win but lost, the trial was defined as "unlucky" and when the subject expected to lose but won, the trial was defined as "lucky". Finally, a fading memory model of luck correlated to an objective measure of emotion, heart rate variability. Our findings suggest OFC may play a pivotal role in processing a subject's internal (emotional) state during financial decision-making, a particularly interesting result in light of the more recent "cognitive map" theory of OFC function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Sacré
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA
| | - Matthew S D Kerr
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA
| | - Kevin Kahn
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA
| | | | - Juan Bulacio
- Center for Epilepsy, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
| | - Hyun-Joo Park
- Department of Neuroscience, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Matthew A Johnson
- Department of Neuroscience, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Susan Thompson
- Center for Epilepsy, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
| | - Jaes Jones
- Department of Neuroscience, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Vikram S Chib
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA
| | - John T Gale
- Department of Neuroscience, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.,Center for Neurological Restoration, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Sridevi V Sarma
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21211, USA
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8
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Mende-Siedlecki P, Todorov A. Neural dissociations between meaningful and mere inconsistency in impression updating. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1489-500. [PMID: 27217118 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2015] [Accepted: 04/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent neuroimaging work has identified a network of regions that work in concert to update impressions of other people, particularly in response to inconsistent behavior. However, the specific functional contributions of these regions to the updating process remain unclear. Using fMRI, we tested whether increases in activity triggered by inconsistent behavior reflect changes in the stored representations of other people in response to behavioral inconsistency, or merely a response to the inconsistency itself. Participants encountered a series of individuals whose behavior either changed in an attributionally meaningful fashion or was merely inconsistent with the immediately preceding behavior. We observed that left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were preferentially recruited in response to unexpected, immoral behavior, whereas a separate set of regions (including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and temporoparietal junction/inferior parietal lobule) was preferentially recruited in response to more mundane inconsistencies in behavior. These results shed light on the distributed systems supporting impression updating. Specifically, while many regions supporting updating may primarily respond to moment-to-moment changes in behavior, a subset of regions (e.g. vlPFC and IFG) may contribute to updating person representations in response to trait-relevant changes in behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alexander Todorov
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA
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9
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Abstract
Recent studies of political behavior suggest that voting decisions can be influenced substantially by "first-impression" social attributions based on physical appearance. Separate lines of research have implicated the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in the judgment of social traits on the one hand and economic decision-making on the other, making this region a plausible candidate for linking social attributions to voting decisions. Here, we asked whether OFC lesions in humans disrupted the ability to judge traits of political candidates or affected how these judgments influenced voting decisions. Seven patients with lateral OFC damage, 18 patients with frontal damage sparing the lateral OFC, and 53 matched healthy participants took part in a simulated election paradigm, in which they voted for real-life (but unknown) candidates based only on photographs of their faces. Consistent with previous work, attributions of "competence" and "attractiveness" based on candidate appearance predicted voting behavior in the healthy control group. Frontal damage did not affect substantially the ability to make competence or attractiveness judgments, but patients with damage to the lateral OFC differed from other groups in how they applied this information when voting. Only attractiveness ratings had any predictive power for voting choices after lateral OFC damage, whereas other frontal patients and healthy controls relied on information about both competence and attractiveness in making their choice. An intact lateral OFC may not be necessary for judgment of social traits based on physical appearance, but it seems to be crucial in applying this information in political decision-making.
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10
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Zhou Y, Wang Y, Rao LL, Yang LQ, Li S. Money talks: neural substrate of modulation of fairness by monetary incentives. Front Behav Neurosci 2014; 8:150. [PMID: 24834034 PMCID: PMC4017157 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2014] [Accepted: 04/13/2014] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
A unique feature of the human species is compliance with social norms, e.g., fairness, even though this normative decision means curbing self-interest. However, sometimes people prefer to pursue wealth at the expense of moral goodness. Specifically, deviations from a fairness-related normative choice have been observed in the presence of a high monetary incentive. The neural mechanism underlying this deviation from the fairness-related normative choice has yet to be determined. In order to address this issue, using functional magnetic resonance imaging we employed an ultimatum game (UG) paradigm in which fairness and a proposed monetary amount were orthogonally varied. We found evidence for a significant modulation by the proposed amount on fairness in the right lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the bilateral insular cortices. Additionally, the insular subregions showed dissociable modulation patterns. Inter-individual differences in the modulation effects in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) accounted for inter-individual differences in the behavioral modulation effect as measured by the rejection rate, supporting the concept that the PFC plays a critical role in making fairness-related normative decisions in a social interaction condition. Our findings provide neural evidence for the modulation of fairness by monetary incentives as well as accounting for inter-individual differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
| | - Yun Wang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China ; Institute of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
| | - Li-Lin Rao
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
| | - Liu-Qing Yang
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China ; Institute of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
| | - Shu Li
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
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11
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Diagnostic value underlies asymmetric updating of impressions in the morality and ability domains. J Neurosci 2014; 33:19406-15. [PMID: 24336707 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2334-13.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
While positive behavioral information is diagnostic when evaluating a person's abilities, negative information is diagnostic when evaluating morality. Although social psychology has considered these two domains as orthogonal and distinct from one another, we demonstrate that this asymmetry in diagnosticity can be explained by a single parsimonious principle--the perceived frequency of behaviors in these domains. Less frequent behaviors (e.g., high ability and low morality) are weighed more heavily in evaluations. We show that this statistical principle of frequency-derived diagnosticity is evident in human participants at both behavioral and neural levels of analysis. Specifically, activity in right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex increased preferentially when participants updated impressions based on diagnostic behaviors, and further, activity in this region covaried parametrically with the perceived frequency of behaviors. Activity in left ventrolateral PFC, left inferior frontal gyrus, and left superior temporal sulcus showed similar patterns of diagnosticity and sensitivity, though additional analyses confirmed that these regions responded primarily to updates based on immoral behaviors.
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12
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Abstract
Although several studies have investigated the neural mechanism of social comparison, it remains unclear whether and how cultural membership, particularly independent versus interdependent cultures, may differentially shape the neural processes underlying social comparison. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the behaviors and neural response patterns of Korean (i.e., interdependent culture) and American (i.e., independent culture) participants while performing a financial gambling task simultaneously and independently with a partner. Upon seeing the partner's income, greater modulation of the activity in the ventral striatum (VS) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) by relative gain was observed in Korean than American participants, suggesting greater sensitivity of Koreans toward social comparison. The strength of functional connectivity between the VS and the vmPFC predicted individual variability in the degree to which participants' decisions were affected by relative incomes. Additional model-based fMRI analysis further confirmed the primary role of the vmPFC in biasing decisions based on relative incomes. In summary, the present study provides the first neural evidence for decision biases due to social comparison and their individual and cultural variations.
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13
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Rogers RD, Bayliss AP, Szepietowska A, Dale L, Reeder L, Pizzamiglio G, Czarna K, Wakeley J, Cowen PJ, Tipper SP. I want to help you, but I am not sure why: gaze-cuing induces altruistic giving. J Exp Psychol Gen 2013; 143:763-77. [PMID: 23937180 PMCID: PMC3970851 DOI: 10.1037/a0033677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Detecting subtle indicators of trustworthiness is highly adaptive for moving effectively amongst social partners. One powerful signal is gaze direction, which individuals can use to inform (or deceive) by looking toward (or away from) important objects or events in the environment. Here, across 5 experiments, we investigate whether implicit learning about gaze cues can influence subsequent economic transactions; we also examine some of the underlying mechanisms. In the 1st experiment, we demonstrate that people invest more money with individuals whose gaze information has previously been helpful, possibly reflecting enhanced trust appraisals. However, in 2 further experiments, we show that other mechanisms driving this behavior include obligations to fairness or (painful) altruism, since people also make more generous offers and allocations of money to individuals with reliable gaze cues in adapted 1-shot ultimatum games and 1-shot dictator games. In 2 final experiments, we show that the introduction of perceptual noise while following gaze can disrupt these effects, but only when the social partners are unfamiliar. Nonconscious detection of reliable gaze cues can prompt altruism toward others, probably reflecting the interplay of systems that encode identity and control gaze-evoked attention, integrating the reinforcement value of gaze cues.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Laura Dale
- Department of Psychology, University of Bath
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14
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Dissociable neural modulation underlying lasting first impressions, changing your mind for the better, and changing it for the worse. J Neurosci 2013; 33:9337-44. [PMID: 23719802 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5634-12.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Unattractive job candidates face a disadvantage when interviewing for a job. Employers' evaluations are colored by the candidate's physical attractiveness even when they take job interview performance into account. This example illustrates unexplored questions about the neural basis of social evaluation in humans. What neural regions support the lasting effects of initial impressions (even after getting to know someone)? How does the brain process information that changes our minds about someone? Job candidates' competence was evaluated from photographs and again after seeing snippets of job interviews. Left lateral orbitofrontal cortex modulation serves as a warning signal for initial reactions that ultimately undermine evaluations even when additional information is taken into account. The neural basis of changing one's mind about a candidate is not a simple matter of computing the amount of competence-affirming information in their job interview. Instead, seeing a candidate for the better is somewhat distinguishable at the neural level from seeing a candidate for the worse. Whereas amygdala modulation marks the extremity of evaluation change, favorable impression change additionally draws on parametric modulation of lateral prefrontal cortex and unfavorable impression change additionally draws on parametric modulation of medial prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, and striatum. Investigating social evaluation as a dynamic process (rather than a one-time impression) paints a new picture of its neural basis and highlights the partially dissociable processes that contribute to changing your mind about someone for the better or the worse.
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15
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Social judgments from faces. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2013; 23:373-80. [PMID: 23347644 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2012.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2012] [Revised: 12/21/2012] [Accepted: 12/28/2012] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
People make rapid and consequential social judgments from minimal (non-emotional) facial cues. There has been rapid progress in identifying the perceptual basis of these judgments using data-driven, computational models. In contrast, our understanding of the neural underpinnings of these judgments is rather limited. Meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies find a wide range of seemingly inconsistent responses in the amygdala that co-vary with social judgments from faces. Guided by computational models of social judgments, these responses can be accounted by positing that the amygdala (and posterior face selective regions) tracks face typicality. Atypical faces, whether positively or negatively evaluated, elicit stronger responses in the amygdala. We conclude with the promise of data-driven methods for modeling neural responses to social judgments from faces.
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16
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Seo H, Lee D. Neural basis of learning and preference during social decision-making. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2012; 22:990-5. [PMID: 22704796 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2012.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2012] [Revised: 05/15/2012] [Accepted: 05/28/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Social decision-making is arguably the most complex cognitive function performed by the human brain. This is due to two unique features of social decision-making. First, predicting the behaviors of others is extremely difficult. Second, humans often take into consideration the well-beings of others during decision-making, but this is influenced by many contextual factors. Despite such complexity, studies on the neural basis of social decision-making have made substantial progress in the last several years. They demonstrated that the core brain areas involved in reinforcement learning and valuation, such as the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex, make important contribution to social decision-making. Furthermore, the contribution of brain systems implicated for theory of mind during decision-making is being elucidated. Future studies are expected to provide additional details about the nature of information channeled through these brain areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyojung Seo
- Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, SHM B404, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
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