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Ruggeri K, Stock F, Haslam SA, Capraro V, Boggio P, Ellemers N, Cichocka A, Douglas KM, Rand DG, van der Linden S, Cikara M, Finkel EJ, Druckman JN, Wohl MJA, Petty RE, Tucker JA, Shariff A, Gelfand M, Packer D, Jetten J, Van Lange PAM, Pennycook G, Peters E, Baicker K, Crum A, Weeden KA, Napper L, Tabri N, Zaki J, Skitka L, Kitayama S, Mobbs D, Sunstein CR, Ashcroft-Jones S, Todsen AL, Hajian A, Verra S, Buehler V, Friedemann M, Hecht M, Mobarak RS, Karakasheva R, Tünte MR, Yeung SK, Rosenbaum RS, Lep Ž, Yamada Y, Hudson SKTJ, Macchia L, Soboleva I, Dimant E, Geiger SJ, Jarke H, Wingen T, Berkessel JB, Mareva S, McGill L, Papa F, Većkalov B, Afif Z, Buabang EK, Landman M, Tavera F, Andrews JL, Bursalıoğlu A, Zupan Z, Wagner L, Navajas J, Vranka M, Kasdan D, Chen P, Hudson KR, Novak LM, Teas P, Rachev NR, Galizzi MM, Milkman KL, Petrović M, Van Bavel JJ, Willer R. A synthesis of evidence for policy from behavioural science during COVID-19. Nature 2024; 625:134-147. [PMID: 38093007 PMCID: PMC10764287 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06840-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/22/2023]
Abstract
Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions1, with behavioural science increasingly part of this process2. In April 2020, an influential paper3 proposed 19 policy recommendations ('claims') detailing how evidence from behavioural science could contribute to efforts to reduce impacts and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we assess 747 pandemic-related research articles that empirically investigated those claims. We report the scale of evidence and whether evidence supports them to indicate applicability for policymaking. Two independent teams, involving 72 reviewers, found evidence for 18 of 19 claims, with both teams finding evidence supporting 16 (89%) of those 18 claims. The strongest evidence supported claims that anticipated culture, polarization and misinformation would be associated with policy effectiveness. Claims suggesting trusted leaders and positive social norms increased adherence to behavioural interventions also had strong empirical support, as did appealing to social consensus or bipartisan agreement. Targeted language in messaging yielded mixed effects and there were no effects for highlighting individual benefits or protecting others. No available evidence existed to assess any distinct differences in effects between using the terms 'physical distancing' and 'social distancing'. Analysis of 463 papers containing data showed generally large samples; 418 involved human participants with a mean of 16,848 (median of 1,699). That statistical power underscored improved suitability of behavioural science research for informing policy decisions. Furthermore, by implementing a standardized approach to evidence selection and synthesis, we amplify broader implications for advancing scientific evidence in policy formulation and prioritization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Ruggeri
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York City, NY, USA.
- Policy Research Group, Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- 274th ASOS, US Air Force/New York Air National Guard, Syracuse, NY, United States.
| | - Friederike Stock
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | | | - Paulo Boggio
- Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, Brazil
- National Institute of Science and Technology on Social and Affective Neuroscience, CNPq, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | | | | | - David G Rand
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Eli J Finkel
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | | | - Michael J A Wohl
- Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Richard E Petty
- Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Joshua A Tucker
- Department of Politics & Center for Social Media and Politics, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Azim Shariff
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | | | | | - Jolanda Jetten
- University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Paul A M Van Lange
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Global Faculty, Social and Economic Behavior, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | | | - Ellen Peters
- Center for Science Communication Research, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
- Psychology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
| | | | - Alia Crum
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Nassim Tabri
- Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Linda Skitka
- University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | | | - Sarah Ashcroft-Jones
- Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York City, NY, USA
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Anna Louise Todsen
- Department of Social Policy and Evaluation, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | | | | | | | - Marlene Hecht
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Rayyan S Mobarak
- Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | | | - Markus R Tünte
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Siu Kit Yeung
- Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - R Shayna Rosenbaum
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Žan Lep
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Centre for Applied Epistemology, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Yuki Yamada
- Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | | | | | | | - Eugen Dimant
- Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- CESifo, Munich, Germany
| | - Sandra J Geiger
- Environmental Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Hannes Jarke
- Policy Research Group, Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Tobias Wingen
- University of Bonn, University Hospital Bonn, Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Bonn, Germany
| | - Jana B Berkessel
- Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Silvana Mareva
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Psychology Department, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Lucy McGill
- University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Francesca Papa
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, France
| | | | | | - Eike K Buabang
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Marna Landman
- Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Felice Tavera
- Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Jack L Andrews
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- University College, Oxford, UK
| | - Aslı Bursalıoğlu
- Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Zorana Zupan
- Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Lisa Wagner
- Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Joaquín Navajas
- Laboratorio de Neurociencia, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Escuela de Negocios, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | | | - David Kasdan
- Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Patricia Chen
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | | | - Paul Teas
- University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Nikolay R Rachev
- Department of General, Experimental, Developmental, and Health Psychology, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria
| | - Matteo M Galizzi
- Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics, London, UK
| | | | - Marija Petrović
- Department of Psychology & Laboratory for Research of Individual Differences, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Robb Willer
- Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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Wise T, Charpentier CJ, Dayan P, Mobbs D. Interactive cognitive maps support flexible behavior under threat. Cell Rep 2023; 42:113008. [PMID: 37610871 PMCID: PMC10658881 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023] Open
Abstract
In social environments, survival can depend upon inferring and adapting to other agents' goal-directed behavior. However, it remains unclear how humans achieve this, despite the fact that many decisions must account for complex, dynamic agents acting according to their own goals. Here, we use a predator-prey task (total n = 510) to demonstrate that humans exploit an interactive cognitive map of the social environment to infer other agents' preferences and simulate their future behavior, providing for flexible, generalizable responses. A model-based inverse reinforcement learning model explained participants' inferences about threatening agents' preferences, with participants using this inferred knowledge to enact generalizable, model-based behavioral responses. Using tree-search planning models, we then found that behavior was best explained by a planning algorithm that incorporated simulations of the threat's goal-directed behavior. Our results indicate that humans use a cognitive map to determine other agents' preferences, facilitating generalized predictions of their behavior and effective responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toby Wise
- Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
| | - Caroline J Charpentier
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Brain and Behavior Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Peter Dayan
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA; Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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3
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Grogans SE, Bliss-Moreau E, Buss KA, Clark LA, Fox AS, Keltner D, Cowen AS, Kim JJ, Kragel PA, MacLeod C, Mobbs D, Naragon-Gainey K, Fullana MA, Shackman AJ. The Nature and Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety: State of the Science and Opportunities for Accelerating Discovery. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023:105237. [PMID: 37209932 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Fear and anxiety play a central role in mammalian life, and there is considerable interest in clarifying their nature, identifying their biological underpinnings, and determining their consequences for health and disease. Here we provide a roundtable discussion on the nature and biological bases of fear- and anxiety-related states, traits, and disorders. The discussants include scientists familiar with a wide variety of populations and a broad spectrum of techniques. The goal of the roundtable was to take stock of the state of the science and provide a roadmap to the next generation of fear and anxiety research. Much of the discussion centered on the key challenges facing the field, the most fruitful avenues for future research, and emerging opportunities for accelerating discovery, with implications for scientists, funders, and other stakeholders. Understanding fear and anxiety is a matter of practical importance. Anxiety disorders are a leading burden on public health and existing treatments are far from curative, underscoring the urgency of developing a deeper understanding of the factors governing threat-related emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eliza Bliss-Moreau
- Department of Psychology; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Kristin A Buss
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Lee Anna Clark
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Dacher Keltner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
| | | | - Jeansok J Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA
| | - Philip A Kragel
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 USA
| | - Colin MacLeod
- Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences; Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 USA
| | - Kristin Naragon-Gainey
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Miquel A Fullana
- Adult Psychiatry and Psychology Department, Institute of Neurosciences, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain; Imaging of Mood- and Anxiety-Related Disorders Group, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, CIBERSAM, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program; Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA.
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Reis FMCV, Mobbs D, Canteras NS, Adhikari A. Orchestration of innate and conditioned defensive actions by the periaqueductal gray. Neuropharmacology 2023; 228:109458. [PMID: 36773777 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2023.109458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) has been recognized for decades as having a central role in the control of a wide variety of defensive responses. Initial discoveries relied primarily on lesions, electrical stimulation and pharmacology. Recent developments in neural activity imaging and in methods to control activity with anatomical and genetic specificity have revealed additional streams of data informing our understanding of PAG function. Here, we discuss both classic and modern studies reporting on how PAG-centered circuits influence innate as well as learned defensive actions in rodents and humans. Though early discoveries emphasized the PAG's role in rapid induction of innate defensive actions, emerging new data indicate a prominent role for the PAG in more complex processes, including representing behavioral states and influencing fear learning and memory. This article is part of the Special Issue on "Fear, Anxiety and PTSD".
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando M C V Reis
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States; Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
| | - Newton S Canteras
- Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Avishek Adhikari
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
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5
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Wise T, Zbozinek TD, Charpentier CJ, Michelini G, Hagan CC, Mobbs D. Computationally-defined markers of uncertainty aversion predict emotional responses during a global pandemic. Emotion 2023; 23:722-736. [PMID: 35666908 PMCID: PMC9942526 DOI: 10.1037/emo0001088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Exposure to stressful life events involving threat and uncertainty often results in the development of anxiety. However, the factors that confer risk and resilience for anxiety following real world stress at a computational level remain unclear. We identified core components of uncertainty aversion moderating response to stress posed by the COVID-19 pandemic derived from computational modeling of decision making. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, we investigated both immediate effects at the onset of the stressor, as well as medium-term changes in response to persistent stress. 479 subjects based in the United States completed a decision-making task measuring risk aversion, loss aversion, and ambiguity aversion in the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020). Self-report measures targeting threat perception, anxiety, and avoidant behavior in response to the pandemic were collected at the same time point and 8 weeks later (May 2020). Cross-sectional analyses indicated that higher risk aversion predicted higher perceived threat from the pandemic, and ambiguity aversion for guaranteed gains predicted perceived threat and pandemic-related anxiety. In longitudinal analyses, ambiguity aversion for guaranteed gains predicted greater increases in perceived infection likelihood. Together, these results suggest that individuals who have a low-level aversion toward uncertainty show stronger negative emotional reactions to both the onset and persistence of real-life stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Toby Wise
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
- Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
| | - Tomislav D Zbozinek
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
| | - Caroline J. Charpentier
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
| | - Giorgia Michelini
- Department of Psychology, Queen Mary University of London, London UK
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
- Computational Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
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6
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Tashjian SM, Wise T, Mobbs D. Model-based prioritization for acquiring protection. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010805. [PMID: 36534704 PMCID: PMC9810162 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Revised: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Protection often involves the capacity to prospectively plan the actions needed to mitigate harm. The computational architecture of decisions involving protection remains unclear, as well as whether these decisions differ from other beneficial prospective actions such as reward acquisition. Here we compare protection acquisition to reward acquisition and punishment avoidance to examine overlapping and distinct features across the three action types. Protection acquisition is positively valenced similar to reward. For both protection and reward, the more the actor gains, the more benefit. However, reward and protection occur in different contexts, with protection existing in aversive contexts. Punishment avoidance also occurs in aversive contexts, but differs from protection because punishment is negatively valenced and motivates avoidance. Across three independent studies (Total N = 600) we applied computational modeling to examine model-based reinforcement learning for protection, reward, and punishment in humans. Decisions motivated by acquiring protection evoked a higher degree of model-based control than acquiring reward or avoiding punishment, with no significant differences in learning rate. The context-valence asymmetry characteristic of protection increased deployment of flexible decision strategies, suggesting model-based control depends on the context in which outcomes are encountered as well as the valence of the outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M. Tashjian
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - Toby Wise
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
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Mobbs D, Tashjian SM. Ten simple rules for unbiased teaching. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010344. [PMID: 36201408 PMCID: PMC9536547 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (DM); (SMT)
| | - Sarah M. Tashjian
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (DM); (SMT)
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Zbozinek TD, Perez OD, Wise T, Fanselow M, Mobbs D. Ambiguity drives higher-order Pavlovian learning. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010410. [PMID: 36084131 PMCID: PMC9491594 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In the natural world, stimulus-outcome associations are often ambiguous, and most associations are highly complex and situation-dependent. Learning to disambiguate these complex associations to identify which specific outcomes will occur in which situations is critical for survival. Pavlovian occasion setters are stimuli that determine whether other stimuli will result in a specific outcome. Occasion setting is a well-established phenomenon, but very little investigation has been conducted on how occasion setters are disambiguated when they themselves are ambiguous (i.e., when they do not consistently signal whether another stimulus will be reinforced). In two preregistered studies, we investigated the role of higher-order Pavlovian occasion setting in humans. We developed and tested the first computational model predicting direct associative learning, traditional occasion setting (i.e., 1st-order occasion setting), and 2nd-order occasion setting. This model operationalizes stimulus ambiguity as a mechanism to engage in higher-order Pavlovian learning. Both behavioral and computational modeling results suggest that 2nd-order occasion setting was learned, as evidenced by lack and presence of transfer of occasion setting properties when expected and the superior fit of our 2nd-order occasion setting model compared to the 1st-order occasion setting or direct associations models. These results provide a controlled investigation into highly complex associative learning and may ultimately lead to improvements in the treatment of Pavlovian-based mental health disorders (e.g., anxiety disorders, substance use).
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomislav D. Zbozinek
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - Omar D. Perez
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- University of Santiago, CESS-Santiago, Faculty of Business and Economics, Santiago, Chile
- University of Chile, Department of Industrial Engineering, Santiago, Chile
| | - Toby Wise
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - Michael Fanselow
- University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- University of California, Los Angeles, Staglin Center for Brain and Behavioral Health, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- University of California, Los Angeles, Brain Research Institute, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Dean Mobbs
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- California Institute of Technology, Computation and Neural Systems Program, Pasadena, California, United States of America
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9
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Wu H, Fung BJ, Mobbs D. Mentalizing During Social Interaction: The Development and Validation of the Interactive Mentalizing Questionnaire. Front Psychol 2022; 12:791835. [PMID: 35250692 PMCID: PMC8891136 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.791835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Studies have shown that during social interaction a shared system underlies inferring one’s own mental state, and the mental states of others – processes often referred to as mentalization. However, no validated assessment has been developed to measure second order mentalization (one’s beliefs about how transparent one’s thoughts are to others), or whether this capacity plays a significant role in social interaction. The current work presents a interactive mentalization theory, which divides these directional and second order aspects of mentalization, and investigates whether these constructs are measurable, stable, and meaningful in social interactions. We developed a 20-item, self-report interactive mentalization questionnaire (IMQ) in order to assess the different sub-components of mentalization: self–self, self–other, and other–self mentalization (Study 1). We then tested this scale on a large, online sample, and report convergent and discriminant validity in the form of correlations with other measures (Study 2), as well as correlations with social deception behaviors in real online interaction with Mturk studies (Study 3 and Study 4). These results validate the IMQ, and support the idea that these three factors can predict mentalization in social interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiyan Wu
- Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau SAR, China
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
- *Correspondence: Haiyan Wu,
| | - Bowen J. Fung
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
- Dean Mobbs,
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10
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Tashjian SM, Fedrigo V, Molapour T, Mobbs D, Camerer CF. Physiological Responses to a Haunted-House Threat Experience: Distinct Tonic and Phasic Effects. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:236-248. [PMID: 35001710 PMCID: PMC9096462 DOI: 10.1177/09567976211032231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Threats elicit physiological responses, the frequency and intensity of which have implications for survival. Ethical and practical limitations on human laboratory manipulations present barriers to studying immersive threat. Furthermore, few investigations have examined group effects and concordance with subjective emotional experiences to threat. The current preregistered study measured electrodermal activity in 156 adults while they participated in small groups in a 30-min haunted-house experience involving various immersive threats. Results revealed positive associations between (a) friends and tonic arousal, (b) unexpected attacks and phasic activity (frequency and amplitude), (c) subjective fear and phasic frequency, and (d) dissociable sensitization effects linked to baseline orienting response. Findings demonstrate the relevance of (a) social dynamics (friends vs. strangers) for tonic arousal and (b) subjective fear and threat predictability for phasic arousal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M. Tashjian
- Division of the Humanities and Social
Sciences, California Institute of Technology,Sarah M. Tashjian, California Institute of
Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
| | - Virginia Fedrigo
- Division of the Humanities and Social
Sciences, California Institute of Technology
| | - Tanaz Molapour
- Division of the Humanities and Social
Sciences, California Institute of Technology
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social
Sciences, California Institute of Technology,Computation and Neural Systems Program,
California Institute of Technology
| | - Colin F. Camerer
- Division of the Humanities and Social
Sciences, California Institute of Technology
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11
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Zbozinek TD, Charpentier CJ, Qi S, Mobbs D. Economic Decisions with Ambiguous Outcome Magnitudes Vary with Low and High Stakes but Not Trait Anxiety or Depression. Comput Psychiatr 2021; 5:119-139. [PMID: 38773996 PMCID: PMC11104296 DOI: 10.5334/cpsy.79] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Most of life's decisions involve risk and uncertainty regarding whether reward or loss will follow. Decision makers often face uncertainty not only about the likelihood of outcomes (what are the chances that I will get a raise if I ask my supervisor? What are the chances that my supervisor will be upset with me for asking?) but also the magnitude of outcomes (if I do get a raise, how large will it be? If my supervisor gets upset, how bad will the consequences be for me?). Only a few studies have investigated economic decision making with ambiguous likelihoods, and even fewer have investigated ambiguous outcome magnitudes. In the present report, we investigated the effects of ambiguous outcome magnitude, risk, and gains/losses in an economic decision-making task with low stakes (Study 1; $3.60-$5.70; N = 367) and high stakes (Study 2; $6-$48; N = 210) using a within-subjects design. We conducted computational modeling to determine individuals' preferences/aversions for ambiguous outcome magnitudes, risk, and gains/losses. We additionally investigated the association between trait anxiety and trait depression and decision-making parameters. Our results show that increasing stakes increased ambiguous gain aversion and unambiguous risk aversion but increased ambiguous sure loss preference; participants also became more averse to ambiguous sure gains relative to unambiguous risky gains. There were no significant effects of trait anxiety or trait depression on economic decision making. Our results suggest that as stakes increase, people tend to avoid uncertainty in the gain domain (especially ambiguous gains) but prefer ambiguous vs unambiguous sure losses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomislav D. Zbozinek
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, US
| | - Caroline J. Charpentier
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, US
| | - Song Qi
- National Institute of Mental Health, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6200, MSC 9663, Bethesda, MD 20892, US
| | - Dean Mobbs
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, US
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12
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Zbozinek TD, Wise T, Perez OD, Qi S, Fanselow MS, Mobbs D. Pavlovian occasion setting in human fear and appetitive conditioning: Effects of trait anxiety and trait depression. Behav Res Ther 2021; 147:103986. [PMID: 34740100 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 10/05/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Contexts and discrete stimuli often hierarchically influence the association between a stimulus and outcome. This phenomenon, called occasion setting, is central to modulation-based Pavlovian learning. We conducted two experiments with humans in fear and appetitive conditioning paradigms, training stimuli in differential conditioning, feature-positive discriminations, and feature-negative discriminations. We also investigated the effects of trait anxiety and trait depression on these forms of learning. Results from both experiments showed that participants were able to successfully learn which stimuli predicted the electric shock and monetary reward outcomes. Additionally, as hypothesized, the stimuli trained as occasion setters had little-to-no effect on simple reinforced or non-reinforced stimuli, suggesting the former were indeed occasion setters. Lastly, in fear conditioning, trait anxiety was associated with increases in fear of occasion setter/conditional stimulus compounds; in appetitive conditioning, trait depression was associated with lower expectations of monetary reward for the trained negative occasion setting compound and transfer of the negative occasion setter to the simple reinforced stimulus. These results suggest that clinically anxious individuals may have enhanced fear of occasion setting compounds, and clinically depressed individuals may expect less reward with compounds involving the negative occasion setter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomislav D Zbozinek
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
| | - Toby Wise
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
| | - Omar D Perez
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA; University of Santiago of Chile (USACH), Faculty of Business and Economics, Santiago, Chile
| | - Song Qi
- National Institute of Mental Health, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6200, MSC 9663, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Michael S Fanselow
- University of California, Department of Psychology, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90025, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
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13
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Abstract
When we face danger or stress, the presence of others can provide a powerful signal of safety and support. However, despite a large literature on group living benefits in animals, few studies have been conducted on how group size alters subjective emotional responses and threat perception in humans. We conducted 5 experiments (N = 3,652) to investigate whether the presence of others decreases fear in response to threat under a variety of conditions. In Studies 1, 2 and 3, we experimentally manipulated group size in hypothetical and real-world situations and found that fear responses decreased as group size increased. In Studies 4 and 5 we again used a combination of hypothetical and real-world decisions to test whether increased anxiety in response to a potential threat would lead participants to choose larger groups for themselves. Participants consistently chose larger groups when threat and anxiety were high. Overall, our findings show that group size provides a salient signal of protection and safety in humans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Tedeschi
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY
| | - Sophia Armand
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY
| | - Anastasia Buyalskaya
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
| | - Brian Silston
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
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14
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Silston B, Wise T, Qi S, Sui X, Dayan P, Mobbs D. Neural encoding of perceived patch value during competitive and hazardous virtual foraging. Nat Commun 2021; 12:5478. [PMID: 34531399 PMCID: PMC8446065 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25816-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 08/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural observations suggest that in safe environments, organisms avoid competition to maximize gain, while in hazardous environments the most effective survival strategy is to congregate with competition to reduce the likelihood of predatory attack. We probed the extent to which survival decisions in humans follow these patterns, and examined the factors that determined individual-level decision-making. In a virtual foraging task containing changing levels of competition in safe and hazardous patches with virtual predators, we demonstrate that human participants inversely select competition avoidant and risk diluting strategies depending on perceived patch value (PPV), a computation dependent on reward, threat, and competition. We formulate a mathematically grounded quantification of PPV in social foraging environments and show using multivariate fMRI analyses that PPV is encoded by mid-cingulate cortex (MCC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortices (vMPFC), regions that integrate action and value signals. Together, these results suggest humans utilize and integrate multidimensional information to adaptively select patches highest in PPV, and that MCC and vMPFC play a role in adapting to both competitive and predatory threats in a virtual foraging setting. Humans adapt decision strategies in response to environmental demands. Here the authors show that decisions in a virtual foraging task can be modelled based on perceived patch value, which includes reward, competition and threat, and is associated with activity in ventromedial prefrontal and medial cingulate cortices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Silston
- Columbia University, Department of Psychology, 406 Schermerhorn Hall 1190 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY, 10027, USA
| | - Toby Wise
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.,Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.,Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - Song Qi
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
| | - Xin Sui
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
| | - Peter Dayan
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.,University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA. .,Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, HSS, 228-77, Pasadena, CA, USA.
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15
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Molapour T, Hagan CC, Silston B, Wu H, Ramstead M, Friston K, Mobbs D. Seven computations of the social brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:745-760. [PMID: 33629102 PMCID: PMC8343565 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2019] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and nonverbal signals and involve multiple cognitive systems, including memory, attention, emotion and learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently-from multiple modalities-when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human-social interaction. These include (i) social perception; (ii) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (iii) social learning; (iv) social signaling through verbal and nonverbal cues; (v) social drives (e.g. how to increase one's status); (vi) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself and (vii) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanaz Molapour
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Brian Silston
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Haiyan Wu
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10010, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10010 China
| | - Maxwell Ramstead
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A2, Canada
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A2, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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16
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Mobbs D, Wise T, Suthana N, Guzmán N, Kriegeskorte N, Leibo JZ. Promises and challenges of human computational ethology. Neuron 2021; 109:2224-2238. [PMID: 34143951 PMCID: PMC8769712 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Revised: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The movements an organism makes provide insights into its internal states and motives. This principle is the foundation of the new field of computational ethology, which links rich automatic measurements of natural behaviors to motivational states and neural activity. Computational ethology has proven transformative for animal behavioral neuroscience. This success raises the question of whether rich automatic measurements of behavior can similarly drive progress in human neuroscience and psychology. New technologies for capturing and analyzing complex behaviors in real and virtual environments enable us to probe the human brain during naturalistic dynamic interactions with the environment that so far were beyond experimental investigation. Inspired by nonhuman computational ethology, we explore how these new tools can be used to test important questions in human neuroscience. We argue that application of this methodology will help human neuroscience and psychology extend limited behavioral measurements such as reaction time and accuracy, permit novel insights into how the human brain produces behavior, and ultimately reduce the growing measurement gap between human and animal neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
| | - Toby Wise
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1200 E. California Blvd., HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - Nanthia Suthana
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Departments of Neurosurgery, Psychology, and Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Noah Guzmán
- Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Nikolaus Kriegeskorte
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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17
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Stretton J, Walsh ND, Mobbs D, Schweizer S, van Harmelen A, Lombardo M, Goodyer I, Dalgleish T. How biopsychosocial depressive risk shapes behavioral and neural responses to social evaluation in adolescence. Brain Behav 2021; 11:e02005. [PMID: 33662187 PMCID: PMC8119860 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2020] [Revised: 11/27/2020] [Accepted: 11/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Understanding the emotional responsivity style and neurocognitive profiles of depression-related processes in at-risk youth may be helpful in revealing those most likely to develop affective disorders. However, the multiplicity of biopsychosocial risk factors makes it difficult to disentangle unique and combined effects at a neurobiological level. METHODS In a population-derived sample of 56 older adolescents (aged 17-20), we adopted partial least squares regression and correlation models to explore the relationships between multivariate biopsychosocial risks for later depression, emotional response style, and fMRI activity, to rejecting and inclusive social feedback. RESULTS Behaviorally, higher depressive risk was associated with both reduced negative affect following negative social feedback and reduced positive affect following positive social feedback. In response to both cues of rejection and inclusion, we observed a general neural pattern of increased cingulate, temporal, and striatal activity in the brain. Secondly, in response to rejection only, we observed a pattern of activity in ostensibly executive control- and emotion regulation-related brain regions encompassing fronto-parietal brain networks including the angular gyrus. CONCLUSION The results suggest that risk for depression is associated with a pervasive emotional insensitivity in the face of positive and negative social feedback.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason Stretton
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Nicholas D Walsh
- School of PsychologyFaculty of Social SciencesUniversity of East AngliaNorwichUK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social SciencesCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPasadenaCAUSA
| | - Susanne Schweizer
- Division of Psychology and Language SciencesUniversity College LondonLondonUK
| | | | - Michael Lombardo
- Department of Psychology and Center for Applied NeuroscienceUniversity of CyprusNicosiaCyprus
| | - Ian Goodyer
- Developmental Psychiatry SectionDepartment of PsychiatryUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Tim Dalgleish
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation TrustCambridgeUK
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18
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Abstract
Accurately estimating safety is critical to pursuing nondefensive survival behaviors. However, little attention has been paid to how the human brain computes safety. We conceptualize a model that consists of two components: (i) threat-oriented evaluations that focus on threat value, imminence, and predictability; and (ii) self-oriented evaluations that focus on the agent's experience, strategies, and ability to control the situation. Our model points to the dynamic interaction between these two components as a mechanism of safety estimation. Based on a growing body of human literature, we hypothesize that distinct regions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) respond to threat and safety to facilitate survival decisions. We suggest safety is not an inverse of danger, but reflects independent computations that mediate defensive circuits and behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M Tashjian
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
| | - Tomislav D Zbozinek
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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19
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Liu C, Pu M, Lian W, Hu L, Mobbs D, Yu R. Conscious awareness differentially shapes analgesic and hyperalgesic pain responses. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2020; 149:2007-2019. [DOI: 10.1037/xge0000759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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20
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Wise T, Zbozinek TD, Michelini G, Hagan CC, Mobbs D. Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. R Soc Open Sci 2020. [PMID: 33047037 DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/dz42] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals are aware of disease risk and alter their behaviour early in the pandemic. We investigated risk perception and self-reported engagement in protective behaviours in 1591 United States-based individuals cross-sectionally and longitudinally over the first week of the pandemic. Subjects demonstrated growing awareness of risk and reported engaging in protective behaviours with increasing frequency but underestimated their risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. Social distancing and hand washing were most strongly predicted by the perceived probability of personally being infected. However, a subgroup of individuals perceived low risk and did not engage in these behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of risk perception in early interventions during large-scale pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toby Wise
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Tomislav D Zbozinek
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Giorgia Michelini
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Computational Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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21
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Wise T, Zbozinek TD, Michelini G, Hagan CC, Mobbs D. Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. R Soc Open Sci 2020; 7:200742. [PMID: 33047037 PMCID: PMC7540790 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 349] [Impact Index Per Article: 87.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals are aware of disease risk and alter their behaviour early in the pandemic. We investigated risk perception and self-reported engagement in protective behaviours in 1591 United States-based individuals cross-sectionally and longitudinally over the first week of the pandemic. Subjects demonstrated growing awareness of risk and reported engaging in protective behaviours with increasing frequency but underestimated their risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. Social distancing and hand washing were most strongly predicted by the perceived probability of personally being infected. However, a subgroup of individuals perceived low risk and did not engage in these behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of risk perception in early interventions during large-scale pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toby Wise
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Tomislav D. Zbozinek
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Giorgia Michelini
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Cindy C. Hagan
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Computational Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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22
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Wise T, Zbozinek TD, Michelini G, Hagan CC, Mobbs D. Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. R Soc Open Sci 2020. [PMID: 33047037 DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/dz428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals are aware of disease risk and alter their behaviour early in the pandemic. We investigated risk perception and self-reported engagement in protective behaviours in 1591 United States-based individuals cross-sectionally and longitudinally over the first week of the pandemic. Subjects demonstrated growing awareness of risk and reported engaging in protective behaviours with increasing frequency but underestimated their risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. Social distancing and hand washing were most strongly predicted by the perceived probability of personally being infected. However, a subgroup of individuals perceived low risk and did not engage in these behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of risk perception in early interventions during large-scale pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toby Wise
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Tomislav D Zbozinek
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Giorgia Michelini
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Computational Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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23
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Abstract
Mentalizing, conventionally defined as the process in which we infer the inner thoughts and intentions of others, is a fundamental component of human social cognition. Yet its role, and the nuanced layers involved, in real world social interaction are rarely discussed. To account for this lack of theory, we propose the interactive mentalizing theory (IMT) -to emphasize the role of metacognition in different mentalizing components. We discuss the connection between mentalizing, metacognition, and social interaction in the context of four elements of mentalizing: (i) Metacognition-inference of our own thought processes and social cognitions and which is central to all other components of mentalizing including: (ii) first-order mentalizing-inferring the thoughts and intentions of an agent's mind; (iii) personal second-order mentalizing-inference of other's mentalizing of one's own mind; (iv) Collective mentalizing: which takes at least two forms (a) vicarious mentalizing: adopting another's mentalizing of an agent (i.e., what we think others think of an agent) and (b) co-mentalizing: mentalizing about an agent in conjunction with others' mentalizing of that agent (i.e., conforming to others beliefs about another agent's internal states). The weights of these four elements is determined by metacognitive insight and confidence in one's own or another's mentalizing ability, yielding a dynamic interaction between these circuits. To advance our knowledge on mentalizing during live social interaction, we identify how these subprocesses can be organized by different target agents and facilitated by combining computational modeling and interactive brain approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiyan Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, USA
| | - Xun Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, USA.
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, USA; Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, USA.
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24
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Bavel JJV, Baicker K, Boggio PS, Capraro V, Cichocka A, Cikara M, Crockett MJ, Crum AJ, Douglas KM, Druckman JN, Drury J, Dube O, Ellemers N, Finkel EJ, Fowler JH, Gelfand M, Han S, Haslam SA, Jetten J, Kitayama S, Mobbs D, Napper LE, Packer DJ, Pennycook G, Peters E, Petty RE, Rand DG, Reicher SD, Schnall S, Shariff A, Skitka LJ, Smith SS, Sunstein CR, Tabri N, Tucker JA, Linden SVD, Lange PV, Weeden KA, Wohl MJA, Zaki J, Zion SR, Willer R. Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nat Hum Behav 2020. [PMID: 32355299 DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/y38m9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology & Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Katherine Baicker
- University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Paulo S Boggio
- Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Center for Health and Biological Sciences, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Valerio Capraro
- Department of Economics, Middlesex University London, London, UK
| | - Aleksandra Cichocka
- School of Psychology, University of Kent, Kent, UK
- Department of Psychology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland
| | - Mina Cikara
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Alia J Crum
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - James N Druckman
- Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - John Drury
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Sussex, Sussex, UK
| | - Oeindrila Dube
- University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Naomi Ellemers
- Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Eli J Finkel
- Department of Psychology and the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - James H Fowler
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health and Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Michele Gelfand
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | | | - Jolanda Jetten
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Shinobu Kitayama
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Lucy E Napper
- Department of Psychology and Health, Medicine & Society Program, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA
| | | | - Gordon Pennycook
- Hill/Levene Schools of Business, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Ellen Peters
- School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
| | - Richard E Petty
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - David G Rand
- Sloan School and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stephen D Reicher
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Simone Schnall
- Department of Psychology University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Azim Shariff
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Linda J Skitka
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Sandra Susan Smith
- Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Cass R Sunstein
- Harvard Law School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Nassim Tabri
- Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Joshua A Tucker
- Department of Politics, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Paul van Lange
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Kim A Weeden
- Department of Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Michael J A Wohl
- Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jamil Zaki
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Sean R Zion
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Robb Willer
- Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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25
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Mobbs D, Headley DB, Ding W, Dayan P. Space, Time, and Fear: Survival Computations along Defensive Circuits. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:228-241. [PMID: 32029360 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 102] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2019] [Revised: 12/24/2019] [Accepted: 12/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Naturalistic observations show that decisions to avoid or escape predators occur at different spatiotemporal scales and that they are supported by different computations and neural circuits. At their extremes, proximal threats are addressed by a limited repertoire of reflexive and myopic actions, reflecting reduced decision and state spaces and model-free (MF) architectures. Conversely, distal threats allow increased information processing supported by model-based (MB) operations, including affective prospection, replay, and planning. However, MF and MB computations are often intertwined, and under conditions of safety the foundations for future effective reactive execution can be laid through MB instruction of MF control. Together, these computations are associated with distinct population codes embedded within a distributed defensive circuitry whose goal is to determine and realize the best policy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
| | - Drew B Headley
- Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University - Newark, 197 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102, USA
| | - Weilun Ding
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Peter Dayan
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; The University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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26
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Zheng L, Mobbs D, Yu R. The behavioral and neural basis of foreign language effect on risk-taking. Neuropsychologia 2020; 136:107290. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2019] [Revised: 11/03/2019] [Accepted: 11/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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Abstract
There is disagreement on how best to define and investigate fear. Nature Neuroscience asked Dean Mobbs to lead experts from the fields of human and animal affective neuroscience to discuss their viewpoints on how to define fear and how to move forward with the study of fear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.
| | - Ralph Adolphs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - Michael S Fanselow
- Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Joseph E LeDoux
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA
- Nathan Kline Institute, New York State Office of Mental Health, New York, New York, USA
- Departments of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical School, New York, New York, USA
| | - Kerry Ressler
- Division of Depression & Anxiety Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kay M Tye
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA
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28
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Fung BJ, Qi S, Hassabis D, Daw N, Mobbs D. Slow escape decisions are swayed by trait anxiety. Nat Hum Behav 2019; 3:702-708. [PMID: 31110337 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0595-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2018] [Accepted: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Theoretical models distinguish between neural responses elicited by distal threats and those evoked by more immediate threats1-3. Specifically, slower 'cognitive' fear responses towards distal threats involve a network of brain regions including the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), while immediate 'reactive' fear responses rely on regions such as the periaqueductal grey4,5. However, it is unclear how anxiety and its neural substrates relate to these distinct defensive survival circuits. We tested whether individual differences in trait anxiety would impact escape behaviour and neural responses to slow and fast attacking predators: conditions designed to evoke cognitive and reactive fear, respectively. Behaviourally, we found that trait anxiety was not related to escape decisions for fast threats, but individuals with higher trait anxiety escaped earlier during slow threats. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed that when subjects faced slow threats, trait anxiety positively correlated with activity in the vHPC, mPFC, amygdala and insula. Furthermore, the strength of functional coupling between two components of the cognitive circuit-the vHPC and mPFC-was correlated with the degree of trait anxiety. This suggests that anxiety predominantly affects cognitive fear circuits that are involved in volitional strategic escape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bowen J Fung
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
| | - Song Qi
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | | | - Nathaniel Daw
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
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29
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Abstract
Surpassing negative evaluation is a recurrent theme of success stories. Yet, there is little evidence supporting the counterintuitive idea that negative evaluation might not only motivate people, but also enhance performance. To address this question, we designed a task that required participants to decide whether taking up a risky challenge after receiving positive or negative evaluations from independent judges. Participants believed that these evaluations were based on their prior performance on a related task. Results showed that negative evaluation caused a facilitation in performance. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the motivating effect of negative evaluation was represented in the insula and striatum, while the performance boost was associated with functional positive connectivity between the insula and a set of brain regions involved in goal-directed behavior and the orienting of attention. These findings provide new insight into the neural representation of negative evaluation-induced facilitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Prévost
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, NY, USA.,Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland
| | - Hakwan Lau
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Franz Hall, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, NY, USA.,Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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30
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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] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [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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31
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32
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Abstract
During social interaction, the brain has the enormous task of interpreting signals that are fleeting, subtle, contextual, abstract, and often ambiguous. Despite the signal complexity, the human brain has evolved to be highly successful in the social landscape. Here, we propose that the human brain makes sense of noisy dynamic signals through accumulation, integration, and prediction, resulting in a coherent representation of the social world. We propose that successful social interaction is critically dependent on a core set of highly connected hubs that dynamically accumulate and integrate complex social information and, in doing so, facilitate social tuning during moment-to-moment social discourse. Successful interactions, therefore, require adaptive flexibility generated by neural circuits composed of highly integrated hubs that coordinate context-appropriate responses. Adaptive properties of the neural substrate, including predictive and adaptive coding, and neural reuse, along with perceptual, inferential, and motivational inputs, provide the ingredients for pliable, hierarchical predictive models that guide our social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Danielle S Bassett
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania.,Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania.,Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.,Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology
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33
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Abstract
Early detection of danger is highly adaptive, yet fast orientation towards safety is also key to survival. This study aimed to explore how human brain searches for safety by manipulating subjects' attentional set. Subjects were asked to judge random dots motion (RDM) direction and could be shocked for incorrect responses (RDM trials) while keeping alert in detecting shock probability cues (cue detection trials). Relative to safe condition, where attention was set to search cues associated with no shock, incorrect responses to 'dangerous+' cues would increase and correct responses to 'dangerous-' cues would decrease shock probability. In RDM trials, relative to the 'dangerous+', the safe and 'dangerous-' attentional set induced stronger activation in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a core region involved in flexible threat assessment and safety signalling. In cue detection trials, shorter response times and greater accuracy were observed for 'dangerous+' than 'dangerous-' and safe cues. At neural level 'dangerous+' cues induced stronger activity in the frontoparietal attention network than safe cues. Overall, our findings demonstrate that attentional set for searching safety recruits the vmPFC, while detection of threat-related cues elicits activity in the frontoparietal attention network, suggesting new roles for these regions in human defensive survival circuitry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuxia Yao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Song Qi
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA
- Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY, 10027, USA
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China.
| | - Dean Mobbs
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA.
- Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
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34
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Silston
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
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35
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Abstract
The natural world presents a myriad of dangers that can threaten an organism's survival. This diversity of threats is matched by a set of universal and species specific defensive behaviors which are often subsumed under the emotions of fear and anxiety. A major issue in the field of affective science, however, is that these emotions are often conflated and scientists fail to reflect the ecological conditions that gave rise to them. I attempt to clarify these semantic issues by describing the link between ethologically defined defensive strategies and fear. This in turn, provides a clearer differentiation between fears, the contexts that evoke them and how they are organized within defensive survival circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, HSS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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36
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Abstract
Flight initiation distance (FID), the distance at which an organism flees from an approaching threat, is an ecological metric of cost-benefit functions of escape decisions. We adapted the FID paradigm to investigate how fast- or slow-attacking "virtual predators" constrain escape decisions. We show that rapid escape decisions rely on "reactive fear" circuits in the periaqueductal gray and midcingulate cortex (MCC), while protracted escape decisions, defined by larger buffer zones, were associated with "cognitive fear" circuits, which include posterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, circuits implicated in more complex information processing, cognitive avoidance strategies, and behavioral flexibility. Using a Bayesian decision-making model, we further show that optimization of escape decisions under rapid flight were localized to the MCC, a region involved in adaptive motor control, while the hippocampus is implicated in optimizing decisions that update and control slower escape initiation. These results demonstrate an unexplored link between defensive survival circuits and their role in adaptive escape decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Song Qi
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91106;
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY 10027
| | | | - Jiayin Sun
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY 10027
- School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Heilongjiang 150001, China
| | - Fangjian Guo
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Nathaniel Daw
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91106;
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37
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38
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Abstract
With depictions of others facing threats common in the media, the experience of vicarious anxiety may be prevalent in the general population. However, the phenomenon of vicarious anxiety-the experience of anxiety in response to observing others expressing anxiety-and the interpersonal mechanisms underlying it have not been fully investigated in prior research. In 4 studies, we investigate the role of empathy in experiencing vicarious anxiety, using film clips depicting target victims facing threats. In Studies 1 and 2, trait emotional empathy was associated with greater self-reported anxiety when observing target victims, and with perceiving greater anxiety to be experienced by the targets. Study 3 extended these findings by demonstrating that trait empathic concern-the tendency to feel concern and compassion for others-was associated with experiencing vicarious anxiety, whereas trait personal distress-the tendency to experience distress in stressful situations-was not. Study 4 manipulated state empathy to establish a causal relationship between empathy and experience of vicarious anxiety. Participants who took an empathic perspective when observing target victims, as compared to those who took an objective perspective using reappraisal-based strategies, reported experiencing greater anxiety, risk-aversion, and sleep disruption the following night. These results highlight the impact of one's social environment on experiencing anxiety, particularly for those who are highly empathic. In addition, these findings have implications for extending basic models of anxiety to incorporate interpersonal processes, understanding the role of empathy in social learning, and potential applications for therapeutic contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
- Jocelyn Shu
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University
| | | | | | | | - Dean Mobbs
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology
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39
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Dalgleish T, Walsh ND, Mobbs D, Schweizer S, van Harmelen AL, Dunn B, Dunn V, Goodyer I, Stretton J. Social pain and social gain in the adolescent brain: A common neural circuitry underlying both positive and negative social evaluation. Sci Rep 2017; 7:42010. [PMID: 28169323 PMCID: PMC5294419 DOI: 10.1038/srep42010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2016] [Accepted: 01/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Social interaction inherently involves the subjective evaluation of cues salient to social inclusion and exclusion. Testifying to the importance of such social cues, parts of the neural system dedicated to the detection of physical pain, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (AI), have been shown to be equally sensitive to the detection of social pain experienced after social exclusion. However, recent work suggests that this dACC-AI matrix may index any socially pertinent information. We directly tested the hypothesis that the dACC-AI would respond to cues of both inclusion and exclusion, using a novel social feedback fMRI paradigm in a population-derived sample of adolescents. We show that the dACC and left AI are commonly activated by feedback cues of inclusion and exclusion. Our findings suggest that theoretical accounts of the dACC-AI network as a neural alarm system restricted within the social domain to the processing of signals of exclusion require significant revision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Dalgleish
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Nicholas D Walsh
- School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Susanne Schweizer
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Anne-Laura van Harmelen
- Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
| | - Barnaby Dunn
- Washington Singer Laboratories, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
| | - Valerie Dunn
- Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
| | - Ian Goodyer
- Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK
| | - Jason Stretton
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK
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40
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Abstract
Moral perceptions of harm and fairness are instrumental in guiding how an individual navigates moral challenges. Classic research documents that the gender of a target can affect how people deploy these perceptions of harm and fairness. Across multiple studies, we explore the effect of an individual’s moral orientations (their considerations of harm and justice) and a target’s gender on altruistic behavior. Results reveal that a target’s gender can bias one’s readiness to engage in harmful actions and that a decider’s considerations of harm—but not fairness concerns—modulate costly altruism. Together, these data illustrate that moral choices are conditional on the social nature of the moral dyad: Even under the same moral constraints, a target’s gender and a decider’s gender can shift an individual’s choice to be more or less altruistic, suggesting that gender bias and harm considerations play a significant role in moral cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tim Dalgleish
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
| | - Davy Evans
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Lauren Navrady
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
| | - Ellen Tedeschi
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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41
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Koizumi A, Mobbs D, Lau H. Is fear perception special? Evidence at the level of decision-making and subjective confidence. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1772-1782. [PMID: 27405614 PMCID: PMC5091676 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2015] [Accepted: 06/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Fearful faces are believed to be prioritized in visual perception. However, it is unclear whether the processing of low-level facial features alone can facilitate such prioritization or whether higher-level mechanisms also contribute. We examined potential biases for fearful face perception at the levels of perceptual decision-making and perceptual confidence. We controlled for lower-level visual processing capacity by titrating luminance contrasts of backward masks, and the emotional intensity of fearful, angry and happy faces. Under these conditions, participants showed liberal biases in perceiving a fearful face, in both detection and discrimination tasks. This effect was stronger among individuals with reduced density in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region linked to perceptual decision-making. Moreover, participants reported higher confidence when they accurately perceived a fearful face, suggesting that fearful faces may have privileged access to consciousness. Together, the results suggest that mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex contribute to making fearful face perception special.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ai Koizumi
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Ave MC 5501, New York, NY 10027, USA .,US-Japan Brain Research Cooperation Program, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan.,Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Tokyo, Japan.,Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Ave MC 5501, New York, NY 10027, USA.,California Institute of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Baxter Hall 1200 E. California Blvd.Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Hakwan Lau
- Department of Psychology & Brian Research Institute, UCLA 1285 Franz Hall, Bo 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA
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Prévost C, Bolger N, Mobbs D. Associative Self-Anchoring Interacts with Obtainability of Chosen Objects. Front Psychol 2016; 6:2012. [PMID: 26913011 PMCID: PMC4753553 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2015] [Accepted: 12/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Dean Mobbs
- *Correspondence: Charlotte Prévost, ; Dean Mobbs,
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam M Perkins
- Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College London, London SE5 8AZ, UK.
| | - Danilo Arnone
- Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College London, London SE5 8AZ, UK
| | - Jonathan Smallwood
- Department of Psychology/York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
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Abstract
Prey are relentlessly faced with a series of survival problems to solve. One enduring problem is predation, where the prey's answers rely on the complex interaction between actions cultivated during its life course and defense reactions passed down by descendants. To understand the proximate neural responses to analogous threats, affective neuroscientists have favored well-controlled associative learning paradigms, yet researchers are now creating semi-realistic environments that examine the dynamic flow of decision-making and escape calculations that mimic the prey's real world choices. In the context of research from the field of ethology and behavioral ecology, we review some of the recent literature in rodent and human neuroscience and discuss how these studies have the potential to provide new insights into the behavioral expression, computations, and the neural circuits that underlie healthy and pathological fear and anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. U.S.A
| | - Jeansok J Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. U.S.A
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Tedeschi E, Weber J, Prévost C, Mischel W, Mobbs D. Inferences of Others' Competence Reduces Anticipation of Pain When under Threat. J Cogn Neurosci 2015; 27:2071-8. [PMID: 26102229 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
On a daily basis, we place our lives in the hands of strangers. From dentists to pilots, we make inferences about their competence to perform their jobs and consequently to keep us from harm. Here we explore whether the perceived competence of others can alter one's anticipation of pain. In two studies, participants (Receivers) believed their chances of experiencing an aversive stimulus were directly dependent on the performance of another person (Players). We predicted that perceiving the Players as highly competent would reduce Receivers' anxiety when anticipating the possibility of an electric shock. Results confirmed that high competence ratings consistently corresponded with lower reported anxiety, and complementary fMRI data showed that increased competence perception was further expressed as decreased activity in the bilateral posterior insula, a region localized to actual pain stimulation. These studies suggest that inferences of competence act as predictors of protection and reduce the expectation of negative outcomes.
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Mobbs D, Hagan CC, Dalgleish T, Silston B, Prévost C. The ecology of human fear: survival optimization and the nervous system. Front Neurosci 2015; 9:55. [PMID: 25852451 PMCID: PMC4364301 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 169] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2014] [Accepted: 02/07/2015] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
We propose a Survival Optimization System (SOS) to account for the strategies that humans and other animals use to defend against recurring and novel threats. The SOS attempts to merge ecological models that define a repertoire of contextually relevant threat induced survival behaviors with contemporary approaches to human affective science. We first propose that the goal of the nervous system is to reduce surprise and optimize actions by (i) predicting the sensory landscape by simulating possible encounters with threat and selecting the appropriate pre-encounter action and (ii) prevention strategies in which the organism manufactures safe environments. When a potential threat is encountered the (iii) threat orienting system is engaged to determine whether the organism ignores the stimulus or switches into a process of (iv) threat assessment, where the organism monitors the stimulus, weighs the threat value, predicts the actions of the threat, searches for safety, and guides behavioral actions crucial to directed escape. When under imminent attack, (v) defensive systems evoke fast reflexive indirect escape behaviors (i.e., fight or flight). This cascade of responses to threat of increasing magnitude are underwritten by an interconnected neural architecture that extends from cortical and hippocampal circuits, to attention, action and threat systems including the amygdala, striatum, and hard-wired defensive systems in the midbrain. The SOS also includes a modulatory feature consisting of cognitive appraisal systems that flexibly guide perception, risk and action. Moreover, personal and vicarious threat encounters fine-tune avoidance behaviors via model-based learning, with higher organisms bridging data to reduce face-to-face encounters with predators. Our model attempts to unify the divergent field of human affective science, proposing a highly integrated nervous system that has evolved to increase the organism's chances of survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University New York, NY, USA
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University New York, NY, USA
| | - Tim Dalgleish
- Medical Research Council-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Cambridge, UK
| | - Brian Silston
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University New York, NY, USA
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Mobbs D, Hagan CC, Yu R, Takahashi H, FeldmanHall O, Calder AJ, Dalgleish T. Reflected glory and failure: the role of the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum in self vs other relevance during advice-giving outcomes. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2015; 10:1323-8. [PMID: 25698700 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsv020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2014] [Accepted: 02/11/2015] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the risks, people enjoy giving advice. One explanation is that giving beneficial advice can result in reflected glory, ego boosts or reputation enhancement. However, giving poor advice can be socially harmful (being perceived as incompetent or untrustworthy). In both circumstances, we have a vested interest in the advice follower's success or failure, especially when it reflects specifically on us compared with when it is diffused between multiple advisors. We examined these dynamics using an Advisor-Advisee Game, where subjects acted as an Advisor to a confederate Advisee who selected one of the three options when trying to win money: accept the subject's advice, accept the advice of a second confederate Advisor or accept both Advisors' advice. Results showed that having one's advice accepted, compared with being rejected, resulted in activity in the ventral striatum--a core reward area. Furthermore, the ventral striatum was only active when the subject's advice led to the advisee winning, and not when the advisee won based on the confederate's advice. Finally, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was more active when the Advisee won or lost money based solely on the subject's advice compared with when the second Advisor's advice was accepted. One explanation for these findings is that the MPFC monitors self-relevant social information, while the ventral striatum is active when others accept advice and when their success leads to reflected glory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Mobbs
- Columbia University, Department of Psychology, 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA, Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK,
| | - Cindy C Hagan
- Columbia University, Department of Psychology, 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, CB2 0SZ, UK,
| | - Rongjun Yu
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK, School of Psychology, National University of Singapore, 117570, Singapore
| | - Hidehiko Takahashi
- Department of Psychiatry, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan, and
| | - Oriel FeldmanHall
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK, Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Andrew J Calder
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Tim Dalgleish
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK
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Abstract
Why do we self-sacrifice to help others in distress? Two competing theories have emerged, one suggesting that prosocial behavior is primarily motivated by feelings of empathic other-oriented concern, the other that we help mainly because we are egoistically focused on reducing our own discomfort. Here we explore the relationship between costly altruism and these two sub-processes of empathy, specifically drawing on the caregiving model to test the theory that trait empathic concern (e.g. general tendency to have sympathy for another) and trait personal distress (e.g. predisposition to experiencing aversive arousal states) may differentially drive altruistic behavior. We find that trait empathic concern – and not trait personal distress – motivates costly altruism, and this relationship is supported by activity in the ventral tegmental area, caudate and subgenual anterior cingulate, key regions for promoting social attachment and caregiving. Together, this data helps identify the behavioral and neural mechanisms motivating costly altruism, while demonstrating that individual differences in empathic concern-related brain responses can predict real prosocial choice. Trait empathic concern predicts altruistic action. State distress, but not trait distress, predicts altruistic action. A network comprised of VTA, caudate and sgACC support other-oriented prosocial decisions. Neural evidence supporting caregiving model: social reward and attachment guides altruism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oriel FeldmanHall
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK.
| | - Tim Dalgleish
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Davy Evans
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Columbia University, Department of Psychology, 370 Schermerhorn Hall 1190 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027, USA
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Yu R, Mobbs D, Seymour B, Rowe JB, Calder AJ. The neural signature of escalating frustration in humans. Cortex 2014; 54:165-78. [PMID: 24699035 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2013] [Revised: 02/05/2014] [Accepted: 02/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Mammalian studies show that frustration is experienced when goal-directed activity is blocked. Despite frustration's strongly negative role in health, aggression and social relationships, the neural mechanisms are not well understood. To address this we developed a task in which participants were blocked from obtaining a reward, an established method of producing frustration. Levels of experienced frustration were parametrically varied by manipulating the participants' motivation to obtain the reward prior to blocking. This was achieved by varying the participants' proximity to a reward and the amount of effort expended in attempting to acquire it. In experiment 1, we confirmed that proximity and expended effort independently enhanced participants' self-reported desire to obtain the reward, and their self-reported frustration and response vigor (key-press force) following blocking. In experiment 2, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that both proximity and expended effort modulated brain responses to blocked reward in regions implicated in animal models of reactive aggression, including the amygdala, midbrain periaqueductal grey (PAG), insula and prefrontal cortex. Our findings suggest that frustration may serve an energizing function, translating unfulfilled motivation into aggressive-like surges via a cortical, amygdala and PAG network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rongjun Yu
- MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK; School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
| | - Dean Mobbs
- MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK; Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ben Seymour
- Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Suita, Osaka, Japan; Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - James B Rowe
- MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, UK
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Abstract
Advantageous inequality (AI) aversion, or paying at a personal cost to achieve equal reward distribution, represents a unique feature of human behavior. Here, we show that individuals have strong preferences for fairness in both disadvantageous (DI) and advantageous inequality (AI) situations, such that they alter others' payoff at a personal financial cost. At the neural level, we found that both types of inequality activated the putamen, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula, regions implicated in motivation. Individual difference analyses found that those who spent more money to increase others' payoff had stronger activity in putamen when they encountered AI and less functional connectivity between putamen and both orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula. Conversely, those who spent more money to reduce others' payoff had stronger activity in amygdala in response to DI and less functional connectivity between amygdala and ventral anterior cingulate cortex. These dissociations suggest that both types of inequality are processed by similar brain areas, yet modulated by different neural pathways. Hum Brain Mapp 35:3290–3301, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rongjun Yu
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitCambridge CB2 7EFUK
- School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological ApplicationSouth China Normal UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Andrew J. Calder
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitCambridge CB2 7EFUK
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitCambridge CB2 7EFUK
- Department of PsychologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkUSA
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