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Peters A, Helming H, Bruchmann M, Wiegandt A, Straube T, Schindler S. How and when social evaluative feedback is processed in the brain: A systematic review on ERP studies. Cortex 2024; 173:187-207. [PMID: 38422855 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antje Peters
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
| | - Hanne Helming
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
| | - Anja Wiegandt
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute for Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany.
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2
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Rosenblau G, Frolichs K, Korn CW. A neuro-computational social learning framework to facilitate transdiagnostic classification and treatment across psychiatric disorders. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 149:105181. [PMID: 37062494 PMCID: PMC10236440 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Social deficits are among the core and most striking psychiatric symptoms, present in most psychiatric disorders. Here, we introduce a novel social learning framework, which consists of neuro-computational models that combine reinforcement learning with various types of social knowledge structures. We outline how this social learning framework can help specify and quantify social psychopathology across disorders and provide an overview of the brain regions that may be involved in this type of social learning. We highlight how this framework can specify commonalities and differences in the social psychopathology of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), personality disorders (PD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) and improve treatments on an individual basis. We conjecture that individuals with psychiatric disorders rely on rigid social knowledge representations when learning about others, albeit the nature of their rigidity and the behavioral consequences can greatly differ. While non-clinical cohorts tend to efficiently adapt social knowledge representations to relevant environmental constraints, psychiatric cohorts may rigidly stick to their preconceived notions or overly coarse knowledge representations during learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela Rosenblau
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA; Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.
| | - Koen Frolichs
- Section Social Neuroscience, Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Christoph W Korn
- Section Social Neuroscience, Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
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3
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Chen X, Liu J, Luo YJ, Feng C. Brain Systems Underlying Fundamental Motivations of Human Social Conformity. Neurosci Bull 2023; 39:328-342. [PMID: 36287291 PMCID: PMC9905476 DOI: 10.1007/s12264-022-00960-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2022] [Accepted: 07/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
From birth to adulthood, we often align our behaviors, attitudes, and opinions with a majority, a phenomenon known as social conformity. A seminal framework has proposed that conformity behaviors are mainly driven by three fundamental motives: a desire to gain more information to be accurate, to obtain social approval from others, and to maintain a favorable self-concept. Despite extensive interest in neuroimaging investigation of social conformity, the relationship between brain systems and these fundamental motivations has yet to be established. Here, we reviewed brain imaging findings of social conformity with a componential framework, aiming to reveal the neuropsychological substrates underlying different conformity motivations. First, information-seeking engages the evaluation of social information, information integration, and modification of task-related activity, corresponding to brain networks implicated in reward, cognitive control, and tasks at hand. Second, social acceptance involves the anticipation of social acceptance or rejection and mental state attribution, mediated by networks of reward, punishment, and mentalizing. Third, self-enhancement entails the excessive representation of positive self-related information and suppression of negative self-related information, ingroup favoritism and/or outgroup derogation, and elaborated mentalizing processes to the ingroup, supported by brain systems of reward, punishment, and mentalizing. Therefore, recent brain imaging studies have provided important insights into the fundamental motivations of social conformity in terms of component processes and brain mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinling Chen
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Jiaxi Liu
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China
| | - Yue-Jia Luo
- Department of Applied Psychology, University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Qingdao, 266113, China.
- The State Key Lab of Cognitive and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
- The Research Center of Brain Science and Visual Cognition, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650506, China.
- College of Teacher Education, Qilu Normal University, Jinan, 250200, China.
| | - Chunliang Feng
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
- Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
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4
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Zheng Y, Xiao Z, Zhou X, Yang Z. The Hierarchical Relationship Between the Relational-Self and the Collective-Self During Attention Processing. Psychol Res Behav Manag 2022; 15:557-567. [PMID: 35282001 PMCID: PMC8906847 DOI: 10.2147/prbm.s349074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Under the Chinese collectivist cultural system, people emphasize social connections with close others and members of in-groups. Collectivism can be divided into the following two forms: relational collectivism (privileges relational self [RS]) and group collectivism (emphasizes collective self [CS]). Previous researchers have found a hierarchy between the RS and CS, resulting in different degrees of recognition advantages. However, the hierarchy between the RS and CS is unclear and may depend on the specific processing stage. Therefore, this research compared the hierarchy between these two selves during different processing stages using an eye-movement method. Methods The sample consisted of thirty-eight young adults aged between 18 and 24 years old (M = 20.45, SD= 1.62). Each participant finished a dot-probe task featuring high-relevant (HR, ie one’s mother’s name and China) and low-relevant (LR, ie, name of a famous person and USA) information about the RS and CS and neutral information. Further, the eye-movement (EM) indices were collected simultaneously. Results A stronger reaction time bias and longer total gaze duration revealed that young people in China focus more on RS information, indicating that Chinese people prioritize the RS over the CS at late stages of attentional processing. Conclusion Information on interpersonal relationships and information on the in-group both catch people’s attention quickly and easily, but only RS information can maintain attention for longer. Understanding the hierarchy of the RS and the CS may provide more evidence for self-construal in the Chinese collectivist cultural context. The importance of the RS prompting that the interpersonal and close relationships are more important to the development of the self, suggesting that it is necessary to pay more attention to the impact of interpersonal support on people’s mental health in clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingcan Zheng
- Developmental Psychology for Armyman, Department of Medical Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China
- Correspondence: Yingcan Zheng, Army Medical University, Shapingba, Chongqing, 400038, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 15086842695, Fax +86 23-68771779, Email
| | - Zilun Xiao
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China
- Zilun Xiao, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 18108788177, Email
| | - Xin Zhou
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China
| | - Zhuoya Yang
- Basic Psychology, Department of Medical Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China
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5
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Chen X, Li S, Zhang Y, Zhai Y, Zhang Z, Feng C. Different drives of herding: An exploratory study of motivations underlying social conformity. Psych J 2022; 11:247-258. [PMID: 35080146 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2020] [Revised: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
We often align our behaviors, attitudes, and opinions in line with a majority of others, a phenomenon known as "social conformity." A seminal framework has proposed that conformity behaviors are mainly driven by three fundamental motives: a desire to gain more information to be accurate, to obtain social approval from others, and to maintain a favorable self-concept. However, previous studies usually have interpreted conformity behaviors as driven by one motive or another, largely ignoring the fact that human behaviors could be concurrently induced by multiple and even conflicting motivations. Adopting a typical conformity paradigm widely used in previous studies, we explored distinct and concurrent motives underlying the same conformity behavior, combining personality and individual differences with more nuanced analyses of observed conformity behaviors. Our findings provide novel evidence to show that three motivations exist within a single conformity behavior, suggesting that multiple motivations drive the conformity concurrently. These findings provide a potential solution for the extensive debate about what drives human social conformity and help to better understand the conformity behavior in daily life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinling Chen
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Suiqing Li
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yijie Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yuzhu Zhai
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhixin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chunliang Feng
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.,School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
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6
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Lende DH, Casper BI, Hoyt KB, Collura GL. Elements of Neuroanthropology. Front Psychol 2021; 12:509611. [PMID: 34712160 PMCID: PMC8545903 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.509611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroanthropology is the integration of neuroscience into anthropology and aims to understand “brains in the wild.” This interdisciplinary field examines patterns of human variation in field settings and provides empirical research that complements work done in clinical and laboratory settings. Neuroanthropology often uses ethnography in combination with theories and methods from cognitive science as a way to capture how culture, mind, and brain interact. This article describes nine elements that outline how to do neuroanthropology research: (1) integrating biology and culture through neuroscience and biocultural anthropology; (2) extending focus of anthropology on what people say and do to include what people process; (3) sizing culture appropriately, from broad patterns of culture to culture in small-scale settings; (4) understanding patterns of cultural variation, in particular how culture produces patterns of shared variation; (5) considering individuals in interaction with culture, with levels of analysis that can go from biology to social structures; (6) focusing on interactive elements that bring together biological and cultural processes; (7) conceptual triangulation, which draws on anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience in conjunction with field, clinic, and laboratory; (8) critical complementarity as a way to integrate the strengths of critical scholarship with interdisciplinary work; and (9) using methodological triangulation as a way to advance interdisciplinary research. These elements are illustrated through three case studies: research on US combat veterans and how they use Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as a way to manage the transition to becoming civilians, work on human-raptor interactions to understand how and why these interactions can prove beneficial for human handlers, and adapting cue reactivity research on addiction to a field-based approach to understand how people interact with cues in naturalistic settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel H Lende
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Breanne I Casper
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Kaleigh B Hoyt
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Gino L Collura
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
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7
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Van Overwalle F, Ma Q, Heleven E. The posterior crus II cerebellum is specialized for social mentalizing and emotional self-experiences: a meta-analysis. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 15:905-928. [PMID: 32888303 PMCID: PMC7851889 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2019] [Revised: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
This meta-analysis explores the role of the posterior cerebellum Crus I/II in social mentalizing. We identified over 200 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies via NeuroSynth that met our inclusion criteria and fell within bilateral Crus II areas related to ‘sequencing’ during mentalizing (coordinates ±24 −76 −40; from earlier studies) and mere social ‘mentalizing’ or self-related emotional cognition (coordinates ±26 −84 −34; from NeuroSynth), located in the cerebellar mentalizing network. A large majority of these studies (74%) involved mentalizing or self-related emotional cognition. Other functions formed small minorities. This high incidence in Crus II compares very favorably against the lower base rate for mentalizing and self-related emotions (around 35%) across the whole brain as revealed in NeuroSynth. In contrast, there was much less support for a similar role of Crus I (coordinates −40 −70 −40 from earlier ‘sequencing’ studies) as only 35% of the studies were related to mentalizing or self-related emotions. The present findings show that a domain-specific social mentalizing functionality is supported in the cerebellar Crus II. This has important implications for theories of the social cerebellum focusing on sequencing of social actions, and for cerebellar neurostimulation treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
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8
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Levorsen M, Ito A, Suzuki S, Izuma K. Testing the reinforcement learning hypothesis of social conformity. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 42:1328-1342. [PMID: 33245196 PMCID: PMC7927302 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2020] [Revised: 11/06/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Our preferences are influenced by the opinions of others. The past human neuroimaging studies on social conformity have identified a network of brain regions related to social conformity that includes the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC), anterior insula, and striatum. Since these brain regions are also known to play important roles in reinforcement learning (i.e., processing prediction error), it was previously hypothesized that social conformity and reinforcement learning have a common neural mechanism. However, although this view is currently widely accepted, these two processes have never been directly compared; therefore, the extent to which they shared a common neural mechanism had remained unclear. This study aimed to formally test the hypothesis. The same group of participants (n = 25) performed social conformity and reinforcement learning tasks inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Univariate fMRI data analyses revealed activation overlaps in the pMFC and bilateral insula between social conflict and unsigned prediction error and in the striatum between social conflict and signed prediction error. We further conducted multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) for more direct evidence of a shared neural mechanism. MVPA did not reveal any evidence to support the hypothesis in any of these regions but found that activation patterns between social conflict and prediction error in these regions were largely distinct. Taken together, the present study provides no clear evidence of a common neural mechanism between social conformity and reinforcement learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Levorsen
- Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Ayahito Ito
- Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.,Research Center for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan
| | - Shinsuke Suzuki
- Brain, Mind and Markets Laboratory, Department of Finance, Faculty of Business and Economics, the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
| | - Keise Izuma
- Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.,Research Center for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan.,School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan
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9
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Individual differences in envy experienced through perspective-taking involves functional connectivity of the superior frontal gyrus. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 20:783-797. [PMID: 32557135 PMCID: PMC7395029 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00802-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Envy is the painful or resentful awareness of another’s advantage combined with a desire to possess that same advantage. Recent neuroscientific research has begun to shed light on the brain regions that process the experience of envy, including regions of the prefrontal cortex involved in emotional processing and social cognition. It is still unclear, however, which regions of the brain are functionally connected during the experience of envy. We recorded functional neuroimaging data while inducing simulated envy in participants, experienced through a perspective-taking hypothetical scenario task. In this task, participants took the perspective of a protagonist portrayed in a written description and compared themselves to either i) a self-similar/superior individual, ii) a self-dissimilar/superior individual, or iii) a self-dissimilar/average individual. During each comparison, participants also reported how much envy they experienced while taking the protagonists perspective. We demonstrate an inverse relationship in the connectivity of the left superior frontal gyrus to both the right supramarginal gyrus and the precuneus with respect to self-reported envy ratings across participants. In other words, we show that the greater the functional connectivity that the left superior frontal gyrus shares with the right supramarginal gyrus and precuneus, the less reported envy a participant experiences. Overall, our results are in line with previous research implicating the superior frontal gyrus in the reappraisal of negative emotions and extend these findings by showing this region is also involved in modulating the simulated experience of the social comparative, negative emotion of envy.
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10
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Shkurko A. Mapping Cultural Values onto the Brain: the Fragmented Landscape. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2020:10.1007/s12124-020-09553-0. [PMID: 32495163 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-020-09553-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Basic values are the core element of culture, explaining many important differences in social, economic and political effects. Yet the nature and the composition of cultural value systems remains highly debatable. An emerging field of cultural neuroscience promises to shed light on how societies differ in their value systems and on the low-level mechanisms through which they operate. A systematic review of 47 experimental studies using different brain research methods is conducted to identify neural systems and processes, which can be associated with specific values, irrespective of interpretations given by the authors of original studies. Key findings were extracted and systematized according to Hofstede's and some other (Trompenaars' and Gelfand's) models of national cultures. From the perspective of existing accounts of cultural value systems, existing literature provides only a very fragmented and biased view of the neural processing of values. Absolute majority of existing evidence (37 studies) of cultural differences in the brain functions can be associated with individualism-collectivism value dimension. Affectivity-Neutrality is identified in 11 studies, Tightness-Looseness - 6, Power Distance - 3; Indulgence, Long-Term Orientation and Universalism - 2, and Uncertainty Avoidance - 1. Other value dimensions from the applied models of culture are not represented at all. Key problems limiting the contribution of the contemporary culture neuroscience to the comparative studies of cultural values include: researchers' theoretical framing within the independence-interdependence paradigm, resulting in the loss of a broader perspective and alternative interpretations of findings, the lack of focus on the direct comparison of values and value dimensions, insufficiently representative and biased samples.
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11
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Elucidating the role of the posterior medial frontal cortex in social conflict processing. Neuropsychologia 2019; 132:107124. [PMID: 31220506 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2018] [Revised: 06/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/13/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
A fundamental function of the brain is learning via new information. Studies investigating the neural basis of information-based learning processes indicate an important role played by the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in representing conflict between an individual's expectation and new information. However, specific function of the pMFC in this process remains relatively indistinct. Particularly, it's unclear whether the pMFC plays a role in the detection of conflict of incoming information, or the update of their belief after new information is provided. In an fMRI scanner, twenty-eight Japanese students viewed scenarios depicting various pro-social/anti-social behaviors. Participants rated how likely Japanese and South Korean students would perform each behavior, followed by feedback of the actual likelihood. They were then asked to rerate the scenarios after the fMRI session. Participants updated their second estimates based on feedback, with estimate changes more pronounced for favorable feedback (e.g., higher likelihood of pro-social behavior than expected) despite nationality, indicating participants were willing to view other people favorably. The fMRI results demonstrated activity in a part of the pMFC, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), was correlated with social conflict (difference between participant's estimate and actual likelihood), but not the corresponding belief update. Importantly, activity in a different part within the dmPFC was more sensitive to unfavorable trials compared to favorable trials. These results indicate sensitivity in the pMFC (at least within the dmPFC) relates to conflict between desirable outcomes versus reality, as opposed to the associated update of belief.
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12
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Feng C, Cao J, Li Y, Wu H, Mobbs D. The pursuit of social acceptance: aberrant conformity in social anxiety disorder. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2019; 13:809-817. [PMID: 29986075 PMCID: PMC6123523 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsy052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2018] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The defining pathological features of social anxiety disorder primarily concern the social landscape, yet few empirical studies have examined the potentially aberrant behavioral and neural patterns in this population using socially interactive paradigms. We addressed this issue by investigating the behavioral and neural patterns associated with social conformity in patients with social anxiety disorder. We recorded event-related potentials when healthy subjects (n = 19), and patients with social anxiety disorder (n = 20) made attractiveness judgements of unfamiliar others, while at the same time, being exposed to congruent/incongruent peer ratings. Afterwards, participants were asked to rerate the same faces without the presence of peer ratings. When compared with healthy controls, social anxiety disorder patients exhibited more positive attitudes to unfamiliar others and conformed more with peers-higher feedback. These behavioral effects were in parallel with neural responses associated with social conflict in the N400 signal, showing higher conformity to peers-higher feedback compared with peers-lower or peers-agree feedback among social anxiety disorder patients. Our findings provide evidence on the behavioral and neural patterns of social anxiety disorder during social interactions, and support the hypothesis that individuals with social anxiety disorder are more motivated to pursue social acceptance and possibly avoid social rejection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunliang Feng
- College of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, China.,State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Jianqin Cao
- Department of Nursing, Harbin Medical University, Daqing, China
| | - Yingli Li
- Department of Nursing, Harbin Medical University, Daqing, China
| | - Haiyan Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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13
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Pfabigan DM, Wucherer AM, Wang X, Pan X, Lamm C, Han S. Cultural influences on the processing of social comparison feedback signals-an ERP study. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 13:1317-1326. [PMID: 30395315 PMCID: PMC6277742 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsy097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2018] [Revised: 10/14/2018] [Accepted: 10/28/2018] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
This study investigated cultural differences regarding social connectedness in association with social vs non-social comparison feedback. We performed electroencephalography in 54 Chinese and 49 Western adults while they performed a time estimation task in which response-accuracy feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants' own performance (non-social reference frame) or to the performance of a reference group (social reference frame). Trait interdependence and independence were assessed using a cultural orientations questionnaire. Applying a principal component approach, we observed divergent effects for the two cultural groups during feedback processing. In particular, Feedback-Related Negativity results indicated that non-social (vs social) reference feedback was more salient/motivating for Chinese participants, while Westerners showed the opposite pattern. The results suggest that Chinese individuals perceive a non-social context as more salient than a social comparison context, possibly due to their extensive experience of social comparisons in daily life. The reverse pattern was found in Western participants, for whom a social comparison context is less common and presumably more salient. The cultural differences in neural responses to social vs non-social feedback might be caused by culturally diverse cognitive traits, as well as by exposure to culturally defined behaviour on a systemic level-such as the education system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela M Pfabigan
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Anna M Wucherer
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Xuena Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xinyue Pan
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
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14
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Wright ND, Grohn J, Song C, Rees G, Lawson RP. Cultural effects on computational metrics of spatial and temporal context. Sci Rep 2018; 8:2027. [PMID: 29391522 PMCID: PMC5794846 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20200-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2017] [Accepted: 01/08/2018] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The concept of "prediction error" - the difference between what occurred and was expected - is key to understanding the cognitive processes of human decision making. Expectations have to be learned so the concept of prediction error critically depends on context, specifically the temporal context of probabilistically related events and their changes across time (i.e. volatility). While past research suggests context differently affects some cognitive processes in East Asian and Western individuals, it is currently unknown whether this extends to computationally-grounded measures of learning and prediction error. Here we compared Chinese and British nationals in an associative learning task that quantifies behavioural effects of prediction error, and-through a hierarchical Bayesian learning model-also captures how individuals learn about probabilistic relationships and their volatility. For comparison, we also administered a psychophysical task, the tilt illusion, to assess cultural differences in susceptibility to spatial context. We found no cultural differences in the effect of spatial context on perception. In the domain of temporal context there was no effect of culture on sensitivity to prediction error, or learning about volatility, but some suggestion that Chinese individuals may learn more readily about probabilistic relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas D Wright
- Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Jan Grohn
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Chen Song
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Geraint Rees
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Rebecca P Lawson
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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15
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Korn CW, La Rosée L, Heekeren HR, Roepke S. Processing of information about future life events in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Res 2016; 246:719-724. [PMID: 27838016 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.07.067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2016] [Revised: 05/23/2016] [Accepted: 07/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is associated with negative self-images. However, it has remained underexplored whether BPD patients hold negative views of their personal future. When receiving information about possible future live events, healthy participants tend to update their estimates more toward desirable than toward undesirable information. Here, we test whether BPD patients (n=21) process information about their future in a more negative fashion than healthy controls (n=79). Participants rated their probability of experiencing 45 adverse life events-before and after receiving statistical information about the average probability of these events. BPD patients first estimated their probability of experiencing negative life events higher than healthy controls. However, after receiving information about the life events the estimates of two groups did not differ. Both groups updated their estimates more toward desirable than toward undesirable information. Thus, our findings suggest a nuanced picture. At the outset, BPD patients appear pessimistic but they might be able to overcome their pessimism when provided with relevant information. Taken together, BPD patients were initially more pessimistic about their personal future than healthy controls. Both groups showed positively biased updating without evidence for differences in BPD patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph W Korn
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
| | - Lioba La Rosée
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Neuro-Cognitive Psychology Department, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
| | - Hauke R Heekeren
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
| | - Stefan Roepke
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Germany
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16
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Thiruchselvam R, Harper J, Homer AL. Beauty is in the belief of the beholder: cognitive influences on the neural response to facial attractiveness. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1999-2008. [PMID: 27522090 PMCID: PMC5141965 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2016] [Revised: 08/05/2016] [Accepted: 08/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Judgments of facial attractiveness are central to decision-making in various domains, but little is known about the extent to which they are malleable. In this study, we used EEG/ERP methods to examine two novel influences on neural and subjective responses to facial attractiveness: an observer's expectation and repetition. In each trial of our task, participants viewed either an ordinary or attractive face. To alter expectations, the faces were preceded by a peer-rating that ostensibly reflected the overall attractiveness value assigned to that face by other individuals. To examine the impact of repetition, trials were presented twice throughout the experimental session. Results showed that participants' expectations about a person's attractiveness level powerfully altered both the neural response (i.e. the late positive potential; LPP) and self-reported attractiveness ratings. Intriguingly, repetition enhanced both the LPP and self-reported attractiveness as well. Exploratory analyses further suggested that both observer expectation and repetition modulated early neural responses (i.e. the early posterior negativity; EPN) elicited by facial attractiveness. Collectively, these results highlight novel influences on a core social judgment that underlies individuals' affective lives.
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Neural signatures of social conformity: A coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of functional brain imaging studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2016; 71:101-111. [PMID: 27592151 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.08.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2016] [Revised: 08/28/2016] [Accepted: 08/30/2016] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
People often align their behaviors with group opinions, known as social conformity. Many neuroscience studies have explored the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying social conformity. Here we employed a coordinate-based meta-analysis on neuroimaging studies of social conformity with the purpose to reveal the convergence of the underlying neural architecture. We identified a convergence of reported activation foci in regions associated with normative decision-making, including ventral striatum (VS), dorsal posterior medial frontal cortex (dorsal pMFC), and anterior insula (AI). Specifically, consistent deactivation of VS and activation of dorsal pMFC and AI are identified when people's responses deviate from group opinions. In addition, the deviation-related responses in dorsal pMFC predict people's conforming behavioral adjustments. These are consistent with current models that disagreement with others might evoke "error" signals, cognitive imbalance, and/or aversive feelings, which are plausibly detected in these brain regions as control signals to facilitate subsequent conforming behaviors. Finally, group opinions result in altered neural correlates of valuation, manifested as stronger responses of VS to stimuli endorsed than disliked by others.
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18
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Korn CW, Rosenblau G, Rodriguez Buritica JM, Heekeren HR. Performance Feedback Processing Is Positively Biased As Predicted by Attribution Theory. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0148581. [PMID: 26849646 PMCID: PMC4743912 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2015] [Accepted: 01/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
A considerable literature on attribution theory has shown that healthy individuals exhibit a positivity bias when inferring the causes of evaluative feedback on their performance. They tend to attribute positive feedback internally (e.g., to their own abilities) but negative feedback externally (e.g., to environmental factors). However, all empirical demonstrations of this bias suffer from at least one of the three following drawbacks: First, participants directly judge explicit causes for their performance. Second, participants have to imagine events instead of experiencing them. Third, participants assess their performance only after receiving feedback and thus differences in baseline assessments cannot be excluded. It is therefore unclear whether the classically reported positivity bias generalizes to setups without these drawbacks. Here, we aimed at establishing the relevance of attributions for decision-making by showing an attribution-related positivity bias in a decision-making task. We developed a novel task, which allowed us to test how participants changed their evaluations in response to positive and negative feedback about performance. Specifically, we used videos of actors expressing different facial emotional expressions. Participants were first asked to evaluate the actors' credibility in expressing a particular emotion. After this initial rating, participants performed an emotion recognition task and did--or did not--receive feedback on their veridical performance. Finally, participants re-rated the actors' credibility, which provided a measure of how they changed their evaluations after feedback. Attribution theory predicts that participants change their evaluations of the actors' credibility toward the positive after receiving positive performance feedback and toward the negative after negative performance feedback. Our results were in line with this prediction. A control condition without feedback showed that correct or incorrect performance alone could not explain the observed positivity bias. Furthermore, participants' behavior in our task was linked to the most widely used measure of attribution style. In sum, our findings suggest that positive and negative performance feedback influences the evaluation of task-related stimuli, as predicted by attribution theory. Therefore, our study points to the relevance of attribution theory for feedback processing in decision-making and provides a novel outlook for decision-making biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph W. Korn
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Gabriela Rosenblau
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience, Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States of America
| | - Julia M. Rodriguez Buritica
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Hauke R. Heekeren
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show negative and unstable self- and other-evaluations compared to healthy individuals. It is unclear, however, how they process self- and other-relevant social feedback. We have previously demonstrated a positive updating bias in healthy individuals: When receiving social feedback on character traits, healthy individuals integrate desirable more than undesirable feedback. Here, our aim was to test whether BPD patients exhibit a more negative pattern of social feedback processing. METHOD We employed a character trait task in which BPD patients interacted with four healthy participants in a real-life social interaction. Afterwards, all participants rated themselves and one other participant on 80 character traits before and after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. We compared how participants updated their ratings after receiving desirable and undesirable feedback. Our analyses included 22 BPD patients and 81 healthy controls. RESULTS Healthy controls showed a positivity bias for self- and other-relevant feedback as previously demonstrated. Importantly, this pattern was altered in BPD patients: They integrated undesirable feedback for themselves to a greater degree than healthy controls did. Other-relevant feedback processing was unaltered in BPD patients. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates an alteration in self-relevant feedback processing in BPD patients that might contribute to unstable and negative self-evaluations.
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Affiliation(s)
- C W Korn
- Department of Education and Psychology,Freie Universität Berlin,Berlin,Germany
| | - L La Rosée
- Department of Education and Psychology,Freie Universität Berlin,Berlin,Germany
| | - H R Heekeren
- Department of Education and Psychology,Freie Universität Berlin,Berlin,Germany
| | - S Roepke
- Department of Psychiatry,Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin,Campus Benjamin Franklin,Germany
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20
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Toelch U, Dolan RJ. Informational and Normative Influences in Conformity from a Neurocomputational Perspective. Trends Cogn Sci 2015; 19:579-589. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2015] [Revised: 07/09/2015] [Accepted: 07/23/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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21
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Yaoi K, Osaka M, Osaka N. Neural correlates of the self-reference effect: evidence from evaluation and recognition processes. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:383. [PMID: 26167149 PMCID: PMC4481146 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2015] [Accepted: 06/15/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The self-reference effect (SRE) is defined as better recall or recognition performance when the memorized materials refer to the self. Recently, a number of neuroimaging studies using self-referential and other-referential tasks have reported that self- and other-referential judgments basically show greater activation in common brain regions, specifically in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) when compared with nonmentalizing judgments, but that a ventral-to-dorsal gradient in MPFC emerges from a direct comparison between self- and other-judgments. However, most of these previous studies could not provide an adequate explanation for the neural basis of SRE because they did not directly compare brain activation for recognition/recall of the words referenced to the self with another person. Here, we used an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that measured brain activity during processing of references to the self and another, and for recognition of self and other referenced words. Results from the fMRI evaluation task indicated greater activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in the self-referential condition. While in the recognition task, VMPFC, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and bilateral angular gyrus (AG) showed greater activation when participants correctly recognized self-referenced words versus other-referenced words. These data provide evidence that the self-referenced words evoked greater activation in the self-related region (VMPFC) and memory-related regions (PCC and AG) relative to another person in the retrieval phase, and that the words remained as a stronger memory trace that supports recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ken Yaoi
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University Kyoto, Japan
| | - Mariko Osaka
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University Osaka, Japan
| | - Naoyuki Osaka
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University Kyoto, Japan
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