Social Neuroscience[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
When humor is a matter of heart: Effects on emotional state and interbeat interval.
Manfredi M, Yumi Nakao Morello L, Marques LM … +1 more , Boggio PS
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Aug · PMID 35759463 · Publisher ↗
Previous studies demonstrated that exposure to humor has beneficial effects on psychological well-being. In the present work, we investigated the behavioral and psychophysiological effects of different types of humor on...
Previous studies demonstrated that exposure to humor has beneficial effects on psychological well-being. In the present work, we investigated the behavioral and psychophysiological effects of different types of humor on psychological well-being and on the performance during the execution of a stressful cognitive task. To this aim, we examined the behavioral and psychophysiological effects of ToM humorous and Slapstick humorous comic strips before and after executing a stressful cognitive task. We hypothesized that only slapstick humor could reduce the level of anxiety, increase positive affect and improve performance on the cognitive task. Our findings revealed that, at a specific point in time, exposure to ToM Humor and No Humor strips were associated with lower IBI (higher HR, increase in cardiac recruitment) than slapstick humor. This result suggests that humor involving ToM abilities and No Humor strips elicited a greater cognitive engagement level than slapstick humor. Moreover, in an exploratory analysis we found a positive correlation between cardiac deactivation during the exposure to slapstick Humor and individual empathy scores, suggesting that the empathy skills might influence cardiac recruitment and the level of cognitive engagement during the exposure to humorous material.
Empathy, defending, and functional connectivity while witnessing social exclusion.
McIver TA, Craig W, Bosma RL … +5 more , Chiarella J, Klassen J, Sandre A, Goegan S, Booij L
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Aug · PMID 35659207 · Publisher ↗
Peers are present for most bullying episodes. Peers who witness bullying can play an important role in either stopping or perpetuating the behavior. Defending can greatly benefit victimized peers. Empathy is strongly ass...
Peers are present for most bullying episodes. Peers who witness bullying can play an important role in either stopping or perpetuating the behavior. Defending can greatly benefit victimized peers. Empathy is strongly associated with defending. Yet, less is known about defenders' neural response to witnessing social distress, and how this response may relate to the link between empathy and defending. Forty-six first-year undergraduate students ( = 17.7; 37 women), with varied history of peer defending, underwent fMRI scanning while witnessing a depiction of social exclusion. Functional connectivity analysis was performed across brain regions that are involved in cognitive empathy, empathetic distress, and compassion. History of defending was positively associated with functional connectivity (Exclusion > Inclusion) between the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) - medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and right OFC - left and right amygdalae. Defending was negatively associated with functional connectivity between the left OFC - anterior cingulate cortex. The relationship between history of defending and empathy (specifically, empathetic perspective taking) was moderated by functional connectivity of the right OFC - left amygdala. These findings suggest that coactivation of brain regions involved in compassionate emotion regulation and empathetic distress play a role in the relationship between empathy and peer defending.
Neural mechanisms of intergroup exclusion and retaliatory aggression.
Lasko EN, Dagher AC, West SJ … +1 more , Chester DS
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Aug · PMID 35658812 · Full text
Aggression occurs frequently and severely between rival groups. Although there has been much study into the psychological and socio-ecological determinants of intergroup aggression, the neuroscience of this phenomenon re...
Aggression occurs frequently and severely between rival groups. Although there has been much study into the psychological and socio-ecological determinants of intergroup aggression, the neuroscience of this phenomenon remains incomplete. To examine the neural correlates of aggression directed at outgroup (versus ingroup) targets, we recruited 35 healthy young male participants who were current or former students of the same university. While undergoing functional MRI, participants completed an aggression task against both an ingroup and an outgroup opponent in which their opponents repeatedly provoked them at varying levels and then participants could retaliate. Participants were then socially included and then excluded by two outgroup members and then completed the same aggression task against the same two opponents. Both before and after outgroup exclusion, aggression toward outgroup members was positively associated with activity in the ventral striatum during decisions about how aggressive to be toward their outgroup opponent. Aggression toward outgroup members was also linked to greater post-exclusion activity in the rostral and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex during provocation from their outgroup opponent. These altered patterns of brain activity suggest that frontostriatal mechanisms may play a significant role in motivating aggression toward outgroup members.
Population variation in social brain morphology: Links to socioeconomic status and health disparity.
Suryoputri N, Kiesow H, Bzdok D
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35658811 · Publisher ↗
Health disparity across layers of society involves reasons beyond the healthcare system. Socioeconomic status (SES) shapes people's daily interaction with their social environment and is known to impact various health ou...
Health disparity across layers of society involves reasons beyond the healthcare system. Socioeconomic status (SES) shapes people's daily interaction with their social environment and is known to impact various health outcomes. Using generative probabilistic modeling, we investigate health satisfaction and complementary indicators of socioeconomic lifestyle in the human social brain. In a population cohort of ~10,000 UK Biobank participants, our first analysis probed the relationship between health status and subjective social standing (i.e., financial satisfaction). We identified volume effects in participants unhappy with their health in regions of the higher associative cortex, especially the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and bilateral temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). Specifically, participants in poor subjective health showed deviations in dmPFC and TPJ volume as a function of financial satisfaction. The second analysis on health status and objective social standing (i.e., household income) revealed volume deviations in regions of the limbic system for individuals feeling unhealthy. In particular, low-SES participants dissatisfied with their health showed deviations in volume distributions in the amygdala and hippocampus bilaterally. Thus, our population-level evidence speaks to the possibility that health status and socioeconomic position have characteristic imprints in social brain differentiation.
Maternal socioeconomic disadvantage, neural function during volitional emotion regulation, and parenting.
Capistrano CG, Grande LA, McRae K … +2 more , Phan KL, Kim P
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35620995 · Full text
The transition to becoming a mother involves numerous emotional challenges, and the ability to effectively keep negative emotions in check is critical for parenting. Evidence suggests that experiencing socioeconomic disa...
The transition to becoming a mother involves numerous emotional challenges, and the ability to effectively keep negative emotions in check is critical for parenting. Evidence suggests that experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage interferes with parenting adaptations and alters neural processes related to emotion regulation. The present study examined whether socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with diminished neural activation while mothers engaged in volitional (i.e., purposeful) emotion regulation. 59 mothers, at an average of 4 months postpartum, underwent fMRI scanning and completed the Emotion Regulation Task (ERT). When asked to regulate emotions using reappraisal (i.e., Reappraise condition; reframing stimuli in order to decrease negative emotion), mothers with lower income-to-needs ratio exhibited dampened neural activation in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC, middle frontal and middle temporal gyrus, and caudate. Without explicit instructions to down-regulate (i.e., Maintain condition), mothers experiencing lower income also exhibited dampened response in regulatory areas, including the middle frontal and middle temporal gyrus and caudate. Blunted middle frontal gyrus activation across both Reappraise and Maintain conditions was associated with reduced maternal sensitivity during a mother-child interaction task. Results of the present study demonstrate the influence of socioeconomic disadvantage on prefrontal engagement during emotion regulation, which may have downstream consequences for maternal behaviors.
Sensorimotor anticipation of others' actions in real-world and video settings: Modulation by level of engagement?
Krol MA, Jellema T
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35613478 · Publisher ↗
Electroencephalography (EEG) studies investigating social cognition have used both video and real-world stimuli, often without a strong reasoning as to why one or the other was chosen. Video stimuli can be selected for p...
Electroencephalography (EEG) studies investigating social cognition have used both video and real-world stimuli, often without a strong reasoning as to why one or the other was chosen. Video stimuli can be selected for practical reasons, while naturalistic real-world stimuli are ecologically valid. The current study investigated modulatory effects on EEG mu (8-13 Hz) suppression, directly prior to the onset - and during the course - of observed actions, related to real-world and video settings. Recordings were made over sensorimotor cortex and stimuli in both settings consisted of identical (un)predictable object-related grasping and placing actions. In both settings, a very similar mu suppression was found during unfolding of the action, irrespective of predictability. However, mu suppression related to the anticipation of upcoming predictable actions was found exclusively in the real-world setting. Thus, even though the presentation setting does not seem to modulate mu suppression during action observation, it does affect the anticipation-related mu suppression. We discuss the possibility that this may be due to increased social engagement in real-world settings, which in particular affects anticipation. The findings emphasize the importance of using real-world stimuli to bring out the subtle, anticipatory, aspects related to action observation.
Neural network involvement for religious experiences in worship measured by EEG microstate analysis.
Walter Y, Koenig T
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35613474 · Publisher ↗
Not much is known about large-scale brain activation patterns in religious states of mind and previous studies have not set an emphasis on experience. The present study investigated the phenomenon of religious experience...
Not much is known about large-scale brain activation patterns in religious states of mind and previous studies have not set an emphasis on experience. The present study investigated the phenomenon of religious experiences through microstate analysis, and it was the first neurocognitive research to tackle the dimension of experience directly. Hence, a total of 60 evangelical Christians participated in an experiment where they were asked to engage in worship and try to connect with God. With a bar slider, people were able to continuously rate how strongly they sensed God's presence at any given moment. A selection of songs was used to help in the induction of the desired experience. With 64 electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes, the brain activity was assessed and analyzed with five clusters of microstate classes. First, we hypothesized that the neural network for multisensory integration was involved in the religious experience. Second, we hypothesized that the same was true for the Default Mode Network (DMN). Our results suggested an association between the auditory network and the religious experience, and an association with the salience network as well as with the DMN. No associations with the network thought to be involved with multisensory integration was detected.
The role of contextual information in a virtual trolly problem: A psychophysiological investigation.
Richesin MT, Baldwin DR, Wicks LAM
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35536699 · Publisher ↗
Trolley problems have persisted as a popular method to examine moral decision-making in the face of many criticisms. One such criticism is that thought experiments provide unrealistically abundant contextual information,...
Trolley problems have persisted as a popular method to examine moral decision-making in the face of many criticisms. One such criticism is that thought experiments provide unrealistically abundant contextual information, leading to mental simulation. Recent work utilizing virtual reality technology has reduced contextual information with mixed results. However, this work has not departed entirely from the thought experiment tradition, often providing written or verbal descriptions of the trolley problem before or during the simulation. This approach may still allow for mental simulation prior to decision-making. The goal of the current study is to examine whether or not this criticism is relevant for the classic version of the trolley problem. One hundred and nineteen participants were randomly assigned to either receive prior contextual information about the trolley problem or receive no information. All participants then entered a virtual reality simulation of the classic trolley problem. We examined decision-making from an affective and autonomic nervous system perspective. We found no effect on any measure in response to the reduction of contextual information. There were, however, surprising gender differences in decision-making and autonomic response. Further, we discuss how these findings relate to competing dual-process models of moral decision-making.
Medial prefrontal activity during self-other judgments is modulated by relationship need fulfillment.
Di Domenico SI, Fournier MA, Rodrigo AH … +4 more , Dong M, Ayaz H, Ryan RM, Ruocco AC
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35504857 · Publisher ↗
The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays an important role in representing semantic self-knowledge. Studies comparing semantic self-judgments with judgments of close others suggest that interpersonal closeness may influ...
The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays an important role in representing semantic self-knowledge. Studies comparing semantic self-judgments with judgments of close others suggest that interpersonal closeness may influence the degree to which the MPFC differentiates self and other. We used optical neuroimaging to examine if support for competence, relatedness, and autonomy from relationship partners moderates MPFC activity during a personality judgment task. Participants ( = 109) were asked to judge the descriptive accuracy of trait adjectives for both themselves and a friend. Participants who reported lower need fulfillment with their friend showed elevated activity only in the self-judgment condition; in contrast, participants who reported higher need fulfillment with their friend showed similarly high levels of MPFC activity across the conditions. These results are consistent with the idea that the MPFC differentially represents others on the basis of the need fulfillment experienced within the relationship.
Facial attractiveness is more associated with individual warmth than with competence: Behavioral and neural evidence.
Lan M, Peng M, Zhao X … +3 more , Chen H, Liu Y, Yang J
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35443146 · Publisher ↗
Individuals appear to infer others' psychological characteristics according to facial attractiveness and these psychological characteristics can be classified into two categories in social cognition, that is, warmth and...
Individuals appear to infer others' psychological characteristics according to facial attractiveness and these psychological characteristics can be classified into two categories in social cognition, that is, warmth and competence. However, which category of psychological characteristic is more associated with face attractiveness and its neural mechanisms have not been explored. To address this, participants were asked to judge others' warmth and competence traits based on face attractiveness, while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They also assessed the attractiveness of faces after scanning. Behavioral results showed that the correlation between face attractiveness and warmth ratings was significantly higher than that with competence ratings. fMRI results demonstrated that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), lateral prefrontal cortex, and lateral temporal lobe were more involved in the warmth task. Moreover, attractiveness ratings were negatively correlated with activation of the dmPFC and TPJ only in the warmth task. Furthermore, the attractiveness ratings were negatively correlated with the defined dmPFC, region related to attractiveness judgment, only in the warmth task. In conclusion, people are more inclined to infer others' warmth than competence characteristics from face attractiveness, that is, face attractiveness is more associated with warmth than with competence.
"We will be in touch". A neuroscientific assessment of remote vs. face-to-face job interviews via EEG hyperscanning.
Balconi M, Cassioli F
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35395918 · Publisher ↗
In the last decades, improving remote communications in companies has been a compelling issue. With the outspread of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this phenomenon has undergone an acceleration. Despite this, little to no research...
In the last decades, improving remote communications in companies has been a compelling issue. With the outspread of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this phenomenon has undergone an acceleration. Despite this, little to no research, considering neurocognitive and emotional systems, was conducted on job interviews, a critical organizational phase that significantly contributes to a company's long-term success. In this study, we aimed at exploring the emotional and cognitive processes related to different phases of a job interview (introductory, attitudinal, technical, and conclusion), when considering two conditions: face-to-face and remote, by simultaneously gathering EEG (frequency bands: alpha, beta, delta, and theta) and autonomic data (skin-conductance-level, SCL, skin-conductance-response, SCR, and heart rate, HR) in both candidates and recruiters. Data highlighted a generalized alpha desynchronization during the job interview interaction. Recruiters showed increased frontal theta activity, which is connected to socio-emotional situations and emotional processing. In addition, results showed how face-to-face condition is related to increased SCL and theta power in the central brain area, associated with learning processes, via the midbrain dopamine system and the anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, we found higher HR in the candidates. The present results call to reexamine the impact of information-technology on the organization, opening up to translational opportunities.
A matter of perspective: Distinct brain mechanisms for evaluating positive and negative social feedback about oneself and another person.
Weik E, Virji-Babul N, Ribary U … +1 more , Tipper C
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Jun · PMID 35369852 · Publisher ↗
Social rejection is a common experience in the life of young adults. Electroencephalographic (EEG) such as N1, P1 and P3 amplitude has been linked to experiencing social rejection; it remains unclear, whether these compo...
Social rejection is a common experience in the life of young adults. Electroencephalographic (EEG) such as N1, P1 and P3 amplitude has been linked to experiencing social rejection; it remains unclear, whether these components are also influenced by the perspective, e.g., feedback directed to oneself or another person. We used EEG to investigate brain mechanisms associated with social feedback, directed either to oneself or another person. Female students (N = 57) engaged in a Chatroom Interact Task (CIT) during EEG. In this task participants received feedback as to whether themselves or someone else was accepted or rejected as a video chat partner. Mood was measured with the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Participants showed more negative mood after rejection compared to acceptance. Spatiotemporal EEG cluster analysis revealed significant differences in P1, N1 and P3 ERP components associated with Acceptance vs. Rejection. The late positive potential (LPP) component was larger when processing self vs. other-related social feedback. Higher empathy, neuroticism, and lower age were associated with smaller LPP amplitude differences between Self and Other conditions. In this study we identified distinct brain dynamics associated with encoding social feedback and whether the feedback was targeted toward the self or to others.
Neural correlates of enhancing question asking and initiations in children with autism spectrum disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Mohammadzaheri F, Koegel LK, Soleymani Z … +2 more , Khosrowabadi R, Bakhshi E
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35296214 · Publisher ↗
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate challenges in various areas of social communication. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) targeting questi...
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate challenges in various areas of social communication. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) targeting question-asking on brain activity in twenty 6-12-year-old autistic boys, using a Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) design. Verbal children, diagnosed with autism, who lacked question asking in their communication were matched based on age and mean length utterance (MLU) and were randomly placed in either PRT intervention or treatment as usual (TAU) groups. Sessions were individually administered, lasting for 60 minutes 3 days a week for a two-month period. All children were tested before and after intervention to assess behavioral areas (questions, general communicative skills, and MLU) and both groups underwent electroencephalography for 10 minutes in open and closed eye resting-state conditions to assess neural correlates. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis and post-hoc using Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon methods. Significant behavioral improvements in the PRT group were observed after intervention that correlated with changes in electroencephalography (EEG) oscillations at several brain regions compared to the TAU group. The results of this study support other studies suggesting collateral neural changes following the PRT.
Cardiac deceleration following positive and negative feedback is influenced by competence-based social status.
Boukarras S, Garfinkel SN, Critchley HD
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35260046 · Publisher ↗
Previous studies indicate that neurophysiological signatures of feedback processing might be enhanced when participants are assigned a low-status position. Error commission and negative feedback can evoke responses in th...
Previous studies indicate that neurophysiological signatures of feedback processing might be enhanced when participants are assigned a low-status position. Error commission and negative feedback can evoke responses in the peripheral (autonomic) nervous system including heart rate deceleration. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate whether such activity can be modulated by the participant's social status in a competence-based hierarchy. Participants were engaged in a cooperative time estimation task with two same-gender confederates. On each trial, they were provided with positive or negative feedback depending on their time estimation performance. Their social status varied during the task, so that they were either at the top (high-status) or at the bottom (low-status) of the hierarchy in different blocks. Results showed that cardiac deceleration was significantly modulated by feedback valence in the high-status but not in the low-status condition. We interpret this result as an increased activation of the performance monitoring system elicited by the desire to maintain a high-status position in an unstable hierarchy. In this vein, negative feedback might be processed as an aversive stimulus that signals a threat to the acquired status.
Event-related correlates of evolving trust evaluations.
Snowden AW, Hancock AS, Buhusi CV … +1 more , Warren CM
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35184692 · Publisher ↗
Accurate decisions about whether to trust someone are critical for adaptive social behavior. Previous research into trustworthiness decisions about face stimuli have focused on individuals. Here, decisions about groups o...
Accurate decisions about whether to trust someone are critical for adaptive social behavior. Previous research into trustworthiness decisions about face stimuli have focused on individuals. Here, decisions about groups of people are made cumulatively on the basis of sequences of faces. Participants chose to either increase or withdraw an initial investment in mock companies based on how trustworthy the company representatives (face stimuli) appeared. Companies were formed using participant trust ratings from the previous week, to create strong trustworthy, weak trustworthy, weak untrustworthy, and strong untrustworthy companies. Participants made faster, more accurate decisions for companies carrying stronger evidence (e.g., faces rated more extremely). Companies with more extreme ratings yielded faster decisions for untrustworthy than trustworthy companies, consistent with a negativity bias. Electrophysiological data revealed that amplitude of the P1 and P3 ERP components, linked to attentional processes, were largest for strong trustworthy faces. This suggests that evidence counter to bias draws special attention. In addition, the first face representing each company provoked larger amplitude P1, P3, and LPP than subsequent faces. This result suggests that when making social decisions about groups of people, the first person one meets receives the most attention.
Need for cognitive closure is associated with different intra-network functional connectivity patterns: A resting state EEG study.
Massullo C, Panno A, Carbone GA … +3 more , Della Marca G, Farina B, Imperatori C
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35167428 · Publisher ↗
Need for Cognitive Closure (NCC) is a construct referring to the desire for predictability, unambiguity and firm answers to issues. Neuroscientific literature about NCC processes has mainly focused on task-related brain...
Need for Cognitive Closure (NCC) is a construct referring to the desire for predictability, unambiguity and firm answers to issues. Neuroscientific literature about NCC processes has mainly focused on task-related brain activity. According to the Triple Network model (TN), the main aim of the current study was to investigate resting state (RS) electroencephalographic (EEG) intra-network dynamics associated with NCC. Fifty-two young adults (39 females) were enrolled and underwent EEG recordings during RS. Functional connectivity analysis was computed through exact Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (eLORETA) software. Our results showed that higher levels of NCC were associated with both i) decreased alpha EEG connectivity within the Central Executive Network (CEN), and ii) increased delta connectivity within the Default Mode Network (DMN). No significant correlations were observed between NCC and functional connectivity in the Salience Network (SN). Our data would seem to suggest that high levels of NCC are characterized by a specific communication pattern within the CEN and the DMN during RS. These neurophysiological patterns might reflect several typical NCC-related cognitive characteristics (e.g., lower flexibility and preference for habitual and rigid response schemas).
Shame proneness is associated with individual differences in temporal pole white matter structure.
Miyauchi CM, Takeuchi H, Taki Y … +6 more , Nakagawa S, Hanawa S, Sekiguchi A, Nouchi R, Sassa Y, Kawashima R
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35130823 · Publisher ↗
Shame and guilt are distinct negative moral emotions, although they are usually regarded as overlapping affective experiences. Of these two emotions, shame is more closely related to concerns about other people's judgmen...
Shame and guilt are distinct negative moral emotions, although they are usually regarded as overlapping affective experiences. Of these two emotions, shame is more closely related to concerns about other people's judgment, whereas guilt is more related to concerns about one's own judgment. Although some studies have tried to identify the psychological process underlying shame as opposed to guilt, there is no clear evidence of brain regions that are specifically relevant to the experience of shame rather than guilt and, more generally, self-blame. We therefore investigated associations between individual differences in shame- and guilt-proneness and the gray and white matter structures of the brain using magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry while controlling for associations with guilt- or shame-proneness. To accomplish this goal, we enrolled 590 healthy, right-handed individuals (338 men and 252 women; age, 20.6 ± 1.8 years). We administered a questionnaire to assess shame proneness and guilt proneness. Based on our hypothesis, we found that high shame proneness was associated with decreased regional white matter density only in the right inferior temporal pole, whereas no significant region was associated with guilt. The function of this area may be important for the underlying processes differentiating shame from guilt.
The relation between belief in a just world and early processing of deserved and undeserved outcomes: An ERP study.
Hafer CL, Weissflog M, Drolet CE … +1 more , Segalowitz SJ
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35125043 · Publisher ↗
We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine how quickly people in general, and certain people in particular, process deservingness-relevant information. Female university students completed individual difference m...
We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine how quickly people in general, and certain people in particular, process deservingness-relevant information. Female university students completed individual difference measures, including individual differences in the belief in a just world (BJW), a belief that people get what they deserve. They then read stories in which an outcome was deserved, undeserved, or neither deserved nor undeserved (i.e., "neutral") while their ERPs were recorded with scalp electrodes. We found no overall differentiation between early ERP responses (<300 ms post-stimulus onset) to deserved, undeserved, and neutral outcomes. However, BJW correlated with the difference between early ERP responses to these forms of information (s from |.44| to |.61|; s from .018 to < .001). The early nature of our effects (e.g., 96 ms after stimulus onset) suggests individual differences in socially-relevant information processing that begins before conscious evaluation of the stimuli. Potential underlying processes include automatic attention to schema-relevant information and to unexpected (and therefore salient) information and automatic processing of belief-consistent information. Our research underscores the importance of the concept of deservingness in human information processing as well as the utility of ERP technology and robust statistical analyses in investigations of complex social stimuli.
Middle occipital area differentially associates with malevolent versus benevolent creativity: An fNIRS investigation.
Qiao X, Lu K, Teng J … +2 more , Gao Z, Hao N
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Apr · PMID 35114089 · Publisher ↗
This study aimed to explore the neural correlates underlying idea generation during malevolent creativity (MC) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Participants were asked to solve problems during three t...
This study aimed to explore the neural correlates underlying idea generation during malevolent creativity (MC) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Participants were asked to solve problems during three types of creativity tasks: malevolent creativity task (MCT), benevolent creativity task (BCT), and alternative uses task (AUT). fNIRS was used to record individual cerebral activity during the tasks. The results revealed that participants demonstrated weaker neural activation in the right middle occipital area (rMO) and lower neural coupling (NC) between the right frontopolar cortex (rFPC) and rMO during MCT than during BCT and AUT. These suggest that r-MO activity and NC between the rFPC and rMO may distinguish between malevolent and benevolent forms of creative ideation.
Social appropriateness perception of dynamic interactions.
Rothermich K, Ahn S, Dannhauer M … +1 more , Pell MD
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 35060435 · Publisher ↗
The current study explored the judgment of communicative appropriateness while processing a dialogue between two individuals. All stimuli were presented as audio-visual as well as audio-only vignettes and 24 young adults...
The current study explored the judgment of communicative appropriateness while processing a dialogue between two individuals. All stimuli were presented as audio-visual as well as audio-only vignettes and 24 young adults reported their social impression (appropriateness) of literal, blunt, sarcastic, and teasing statements. On average, teasing statements were rated as more appropriate when processing audio-visual statements compared to the audio-only version of a stimuli, while sarcastic statements were judged as less appropriate with additional visual information. These results indicate a rejection of the Tinge Hypothesis for audio-visual vignettes while confirming it for the reduced, audio-only counterparts. We also analyzed time-frequency EEG data of four frequency bands that have been related to language processing: alpha, beta, theta and low gamma. We found desynchronization in the alpha band literal versus nonliteral items, confirming the assumption that the alpha band reflects stimulus complexity. The analysis also revealed a power increase in the theta, beta and low gamma band, especially when comparing blunt and nonliteral statements in the audio-only condition. The time-frequency results corroborate the prominent role of the alpha and theta bands in language processing and offer new insights into the neural correlates of communicative appropriateness and social aspects of speech perception.
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