Social Neuroscience[JOURNAL]
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200 papers
Measuring the neural correlates of the violation of social expectations: A comparison of two experimental tasks.
Portengen CM, Huffmeijer R, van Baar AL … +1 more , Endendijk JJ
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 35057710 · Publisher ↗
Evidence exists that people's brains respond differently to stimuli that violate social expectations. However, there are inconsistencies between studies in the event-related potentials (ERP) on which differential brain r...
Evidence exists that people's brains respond differently to stimuli that violate social expectations. However, there are inconsistencies between studies in the event-related potentials (ERP) on which differential brain responses are found, as well as in the direction of the differences. Therefore, the current paper examined which of the two most frequently used tasks, the Impression Formation Task (IFT) or Implicit Association Test (IAT), provided more robust ERP components in response to the violation of gendered expectations. Both IFT and IAT paradigms were administered in a counter-balanced way among 25 young adults (age 22-31, 56% male), while brain activity was assessed with electroencephalography. The IFT and IAT specifically measured the violation of gendered expectations with regard to toy preferences and behavioral tendencies of young children. The results showed that both tasks were able to elicit relevant ERP components. Yet, the IFT evoked ERP effects of the violation of gendered expectations on all but one of the selected ERP components; the P1, N1, and LPP. The IAT only elicited different P3 amplitudes when expectations were violated. We recommend the use of IFT paradigms when studying neural processes underlying the violation of social expectations.
Interpersonal negotiation skills in ADHD.
Figueiredo T, Sudo F, Serra-Pinheiro MA … +2 more , Tripp G, Mattos P
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 35045799 · Publisher ↗
Social interaction difficulties are amongst the most prevalent and pervasive adverse outcomes for children and adolescents with ADHD. Problem-solving strategies are impaired in affected individuals, according to the lite...
Social interaction difficulties are amongst the most prevalent and pervasive adverse outcomes for children and adolescents with ADHD. Problem-solving strategies are impaired in affected individuals, according to the literature. This study aimed to investigate the social problem-solving skills of children and adolescents with and without ADHD, using objective quantitative measures provided by the Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies Interview (INSI). Since verbal communication skills and working memory may be impaired in ADHD, we investigated their contribution to the performance. Forty-three children and adolescents with ADHD and 27 clinical controls with clinical diagnoses other than ADHD completed the INSI along with measures of verbal communication skills (Verbal Comprehension Index [VCI]): Similarities, Vocabulary and Comprehension subtests from the Wechsler Battery, visual (Corsi Blocks) and verbal (Digit Span) working memory tasks. Groups performed similarly on measures of intellectual functioning, working memory, and verbal communication. For the entire sample, VCI scores were positively correlated with INSI performance scores. The ADHD group performed worse on the INSI than the clinical control group. Linear regression analysis showed that inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity levels and Similarities predicted INSI's performance. Our findings indicate that interpersonal negotiation difficulties in ADHD are related to DSM-5 defining symptoms of the disorder.
An Empirical Evaluation of Methodologies Used for Emotion Recognition via EEG Signals.
Hinvest NS, Ashwin C, Carter F … +3 more , Hook J, Smith LGE, Stothart G
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 35045797 · Publisher ↗
A goal of brain-computer-interface (BCI) research is to accurately classify participants' emotional status via objective measurements. While there has been a growth in EEG-BCI literature tackling this issue, there exist...
A goal of brain-computer-interface (BCI) research is to accurately classify participants' emotional status via objective measurements. While there has been a growth in EEG-BCI literature tackling this issue, there exist methodological limitations that undermine its ability to reach conclusions. These include both the nature of the stimuli used to induce emotions and the steps used to process and analyze the data. To highlight and overcome these limitations we appraised whether previous literature using commonly used, widely available, datasets is purportedly classifying between emotions based on emotion-related signals of interest and/or non-emotional artifacts. Subsequently, we propose new methods based on empirically driven, scientifically rigorous, foundations. We close by providing guidance to any researcher involved or wanting to work within this dynamic research field.
Stronger mentalizing network connectivity in expectant fathers predicts postpartum father-infant bonding and parenting behavior.
Marshall NA, Kaplan J, Stoycos SA … +5 more , Goldenberg D, Khoddam H, Cárdenas SI, Sellery P, Saxbe D
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 35034575 · Publisher ↗
Fathers play a critical role in parenting and in shaping child outcomes. However, the neurobiological underpinnings of successful adjustment to fatherhood have not been well-specified. Empathy and mentalizing abilities m...
Fathers play a critical role in parenting and in shaping child outcomes. However, the neurobiological underpinnings of successful adjustment to fatherhood have not been well-specified. Empathy and mentalizing abilities may characterize more effective fathering. These abilities may be supported by the functional connectivity (FC) of brain regions associated with social cognition and executive control. We used a seed-region-based approach to assess resting-state FC (rsFC) of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in 40 expectant fathers. We tested associations between mPFC whole-brain rsFC and fathers' self-report measures of empathy during pregnancy, as well as their ratings of father-infant bonding and fathering behaviors at six months postpartum. Stronger prenatal rsFC between the mPFC and precuneus, frontal pole, planum polare, and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was negatively associated with self-reported empathic concern and perspective-taking, whereas mPFC rsFC with the lateral occipital cortex (LOC) was positively associated with self-reported perspective-taking. Additionally, stronger prenatal connectivity between the mPFC rsFC and the superior parietal lobule and LOC regions predicted father reports of postpartum bonding with infants, and stronger prenatal mPFC rsFC with the LOC predicted more effective postpartum parenting. This study is the first to measure rsFC in expectant fathers as a predictor of subsequent adjustment to fathering.
Dispositional mindfulness and self-referential neural activity during the resting state.
Li J, Chen Y, Zheng J … +1 more , Qiu J
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 34852724 · Publisher ↗
Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to impact a broad range of outcomes including enhanced attention, memory, and self-regulation. Previously, mindfulness training has been negatively correlated with brain ac...
Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to impact a broad range of outcomes including enhanced attention, memory, and self-regulation. Previously, mindfulness training has been negatively correlated with brain activity across the default mode network nodes following mindfulness-based practice. Currently, little research has been done to understand the neural basis of differences in mindfulness levels in untrained individuals. In this study, we explored the relationship between the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) during the resting state and the level of dispositional mindfulness, which was measured by using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). The results showed that the total scores on the FFMQ were negatively correlated with the spontaneous activation of left premotor cortex. This indicates that individuals with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness might require less effort to control their irrelevant motor responses.
Theory of mind in dysphoric and non--dysphoric adults: An ERP study of true-- and false--belief reasoning.
Mangardich H, Tollefson N, Harkness KL … +1 more , Sabbagh MA
Soc Neurosci · 2022 Feb · PMID 34779696 · Publisher ↗
Theory of mind (ToM) - the understanding that others' behaviors are connected with internal mental states - is an important part of everyday social cognition. There is increasing behavioral evidence that ToM reasoning ca...
Theory of mind (ToM) - the understanding that others' behaviors are connected with internal mental states - is an important part of everyday social cognition. There is increasing behavioral evidence that ToM reasoning can be affected by mood. To gain insight into the ways sad mood may affect the underlying mechanisms of ToM reasoning, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as dysphoric ( = 16) and non-dysphoric ( = 24) participants reasoned about a protagonist's true or false beliefs about an object's location. Results showed significant group effects on early components of the ERP - individuals in the dysphoric group showed greater amplitudes for the anterior N1 and N2/P2 components relative to those in the non-dysphoric group. Later in the ERP, non-dysphoric individuals showed evidence of neurocognitive dissociations between true and false belief. Dysphoric individuals, however, did not show evidence for these later dissociations. This evidence suggests that dysphoria may be associated with effortful reasoning about other's mental states, even when that effort is not necessary (i.e., when reasoning about true beliefs). We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding how mood affects ToM reasoning and for how especially deliberative ToM processing in dysphoria may lead to social difficulties.
A latent variable approach to measuring bridging social capital and examining its association to older adults' cognitive health.
Peng S, Roth AR, Perry BL
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34727017 · Full text
Access to cognitive stimulation through social interactions is a key mechanism used to explain the association between personal networks, cognitive health, and brain structure in older adults. However, little research ha...
Access to cognitive stimulation through social interactions is a key mechanism used to explain the association between personal networks, cognitive health, and brain structure in older adults. However, little research has assessed how best to operationalize access to novel or diverse social stimuli using social network measures, many of which were designed to study information diffusion within large whole networks (e.g., structural holes and bridging social capital). Using data from 277 adults in the Social Networks and Alzheimer Disease (SNAD) study, we aimed to evaluate such measures for use in research on cognitive aging using personal social networks. We found a positive association between individual measures of structural holes and cognitive health, but not with brain structure. Further, we extracted a latent measure of bridging social capital using multiple individual measures (i.e., structural holes, network diversity, weak ties, and network size) and found it was significantly associated with cognitive health and brain structure, supporting the utility of this concept and related measures in the study of cognitive aging. Finally, individual measures may underestimate the effects of multidimensional bridging social capital on cognitive health and brain structure compared to a latent measure that combines them.
Hypothalamus volume in men: Investigating associations with paternal status, self-reported caregiving beliefs, and adult attachment style.
Long M, Puhlmann L, Vrtička P
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34704890 · Publisher ↗
Most studies on mammalian caregiving and attachment focused on the mother-child relationship, particularly in humans. Yet, changing societal roles of male caregivers have highlighted the necessity for research with fathe...
Most studies on mammalian caregiving and attachment focused on the mother-child relationship, particularly in humans. Yet, changing societal roles of male caregivers have highlighted the necessity for research with fathers.We examined the volume of the hypothalamus, an important subcortical brain area for caregiving and attachment, in N = 50 fathering (child age 5-6 years) and N = 45 non-fathering men using a novel technique to identify the hypothalamus in 3T MRI. We furthermore employed three self-report measures to assess interindividual differences in adult attachment style across all men and caregiving beliefs in fathers.While we did not observe any significant difference in hypothalamus volume between fathers and non-fathers or associations between hypothalamus volume and self-reported adult attachment style across all men, self-reported caregiving beliefs were positively related to total hypothalamus volume in fathers. A follow-up analysis showed that fathers' self-reported belief that a father's role is important to child development was specifically related to tuberal hypothalamus volume, while self-reported enjoyment of spending time with the child was not associated with sub-regional hypothalamus volume.Together, these findings suggest that interindividual variability in self-reported caregiving beliefs in fathers is related to brain structure, warranting further research.
Neural correlates of sex differences in communicative gestures and speech comprehension: A preliminary study.
Manfredi M, Boggio PS
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34697990 · Publisher ↗
The goal of this study was to investigate whether the semantic processing of the audiovisual combination of communicative gestures with speech differs between men and women. We recorded event-related brain potentials in...
The goal of this study was to investigate whether the semantic processing of the audiovisual combination of communicative gestures with speech differs between men and women. We recorded event-related brain potentials in women and men during the presentation of communicative gestures that were either congruent or incongruent with the speech.Our results showed that incongruent gestures elicited an N400 effect over frontal sites compared to congruent ones in both groups. Moreover, the females showed an earlier N2 response to incongruent stimuli than congruent ones, while larger sustained negativity and late positivity in response to incongruent stimuli was observed only in males. These results suggest that women rapidly recognize and process audiovisual combinations of communicative gestures and speech (as early as 300 ms) whereas men analyze them at the later stages of the process.
Impaired social perception from eyes and face visual cues: evidence from prefrontal cortex damage.
Riadh O, Naoufel O, Ben Rejeb MR … +1 more , Le Gall D
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34544320 · Publisher ↗
Despite the key role that decoding of social-perceptual cues from faces plays in interpersonal communication, it is only recently that the potential of prefrontal cortex damage to disrupt this ability has been recognized...
Despite the key role that decoding of social-perceptual cues from faces plays in interpersonal communication, it is only recently that the potential of prefrontal cortex damage to disrupt this ability has been recognized. In fact, few studies to date had assessed whether the ability to identify the state of mind of others from the whole or part of the face is disrupted after prefrontal cortex damage and whether these two abilities are associated and share overlapped neural systems. In the present study, 30 patients with focal prefrontal lesions and 30 matched control subjects were assessed on their ability to recognize six basic emotions from facial expressions of the whole face and to identify states of mind of others from photographs of only the eyes using the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task". Results showed that frontal patients were significantly impaired compared with control subjects on both tasks. Moreover, regression analyses showed that these two abilities are associated and reciprocally predictive of one another. Finally, using voxel-based lesion analysis; we identified a partially common bilaterally distributed prefrontal network in the decoding of both emotional cues from both the whole face and eyes centered within the dorsomedial and ventral regions with extension to the lateral frontal pole.
Posterior medial frontal cortex regulates sympathy: A TMS study.
Holbrook C, Iacoboni M, Gordon C … +3 more , Proksch S, Makhfi H, Balasubramaniam R
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34517789 · Publisher ↗
Harm to some elicits greater sympathy than harm to others. Here, we examine the role of posterior medial frontal cortex (PMFC) in regulating sympathy, and explore the potential role of PMFC in the related phenomena of me...
Harm to some elicits greater sympathy than harm to others. Here, we examine the role of posterior medial frontal cortex (PMFC) in regulating sympathy, and explore the potential role of PMFC in the related phenomena of mentalizing and representing others as connected with oneself. We down-regulated either PMFC or a control region (middle temporal visual area), then assessed feelings of sympathy for and self-other overlap with two characters described as having suffered physical harm, and who were framed as adversarial or affiliative, respectively. We also measured mentalizing performance with regard to inferring the cognitive and affective states of the adversarial character. As hypothesized, down-regulating PMFC increased sympathy for both characters. Whereas we had predicted that down-regulating PMFC would decrease mentalizing ability given the postulated role of PMFC in the mentalizing network, participants in the PMFC down-regulation condition evinced greater second-order cognitive inference ability relative to controls. We observed no effect of the TMS manipulation on self-other overlap, although sympathy and self-other overlap were positively correlated. These findings are discussed as they may inform understanding of the functional role(s) of PMFC in regulating responses broadly linked with empathy.
Neural sensitivity to trustworthiness cues from realistic face images is associated with temperament: An electrophysiological study with 6-month-old infants.
Baccolo E, Quadrelli E, Macchi Cassia V
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34469270 · Publisher ↗
Discriminating facial cues to trustworthiness is a fundamental social skill whose developmental origins are still debated. Prior investigations used computer-generated faces, which might fail to reflect infants' face pro...
Discriminating facial cues to trustworthiness is a fundamental social skill whose developmental origins are still debated. Prior investigations used computer-generated faces, which might fail to reflect infants' face processing expertise. Here, Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded in Caucasian adults (N = 20, 7 males, age = 25.25 years) and 6-month-old infants (N = 21, 10 males) in response to variations in trustworthiness intensity expressed by morphed images of realistic female faces associated with explicit trustworthiness judgments (Study 1). Preferential looking behavior in response to the same faces was also investigated in infants (N = 27, 11 males) (Study 2). ERP results showed that both age groups distinguished subtle stimulus differences, and that interindividual variability in neural sensitivity to these differences were associated with infants' temperament. No signs of stimulus differentiation emerged from infants' looking behavior. These findings contribute to the understanding of the developmental origins of human sensitivity to social cues from faces by extending prior evidence to more ecological stimuli and by unraveling the mediating role of temperament.
Dopamine, religiosity, and utilitarian moral judgment.
Mueller D, Halfmann K
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Dec · PMID 34461025 · Publisher ↗
Our goal was to examine the relationship between biological and sociocultural factors that predict utilitarian moral judgment. Utilitarian moral judgments occur when a specific action is based on the outcome rather than...
Our goal was to examine the relationship between biological and sociocultural factors that predict utilitarian moral judgment. Utilitarian moral judgments occur when a specific action is based on the outcome rather than its consistency with social norms. We predicted that (1) individuals with higher levels of dopamine will make more utilitarian decisions and (2) individuals who express greater religiosity will make less utilitarian judgments. We measured dopamine using spontaneous eyeblink rate, an indirect measure associated with striatal dopaminergic transmission. A total of 96 participants completed a utilitarian moral judgment task where they made judgments regarding nonmoral, impersonal, personal low-conflict, and personal high-conflict moral dilemmas. Then, participants completed a questionnaire measuring religiosity. We found a negative relationship between religiosity and the proportion of "yes" judgments participants made in the high-conflict personal dilemmas, which was consistent with our second hypothesis. None of our other hypotheses were supported. Understanding biological and cultural factors that relate to utilitarian moral judgment may also help in developing artificial intelligence that more closely mimic human behavior.
Neurophysiological mechanisms of perspective-taking: An MEG investigation of agency.
Niccolai V, Klepp A, Schnitzler A … +1 more , Biermann-Ruben K
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34452591 · Publisher ↗
According to the embodied cognition framework, sensory and motor areas are recruited during language understanding through simulation processes. Behavioral and imaging findings point to a dependence of the latter on pers...
According to the embodied cognition framework, sensory and motor areas are recruited during language understanding through simulation processes. Behavioral and imaging findings point to a dependence of the latter on perspective-taking (e.g., first person "I" versus third person "s/he"). The current study aims at identifying possible neurophysiological correlates of perspective in a linguistic context. Twenty healthy participants were measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG) while semantically processing visually presented inflected German verbs in the first- and third-person perspective, simple present tense. Results show that the first-person perspective induces stronger beta (15-25 Hz) desynchronization in the right-hemispheric posterior superior temporal sulcus, ventral posterior cingulate gyrus, and V5/MT+ area; no modulation of sensorimotor cortex emerged. Moreover, a stronger event-related field (ERF) was observed for the first-person perspective at about 150 ms after pronoun-verb onset, originating in occipital and moving to central and left temporal cortical sites. No effect of perspective on sensory gating was found when targeting the N1 component related to tones following the linguistic stimuli. Results indicate an effect of linguistic perspective-taking on brain activation patterns. The contribution of the single brain areas and their role in self-other distinction is further discussed.
Mental health stigma and emotional face processing: An ERP study.
Grose-Fifer J, Vidals D
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34445931 · Publisher ↗
This study takes the first step toward developing an event-related potential (ERP) measure of bias toward people with mental illnesses. We recorded participants' EEGs while they viewed happy and angry faces; they were to...
This study takes the first step toward developing an event-related potential (ERP) measure of bias toward people with mental illnesses. We recorded participants' EEGs while they viewed happy and angry faces; they were told half of the people in the photos were mentally healthy while the other half had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, which was indicated by the color of the frame around each face. Afterward, participants rated how dangerous each face looked to them. Participants rated faces with the schizophrenia designation as more dangerous than those designated as mentally healthy. There were significant interactions between facial expression and mental health label for both the early N170 and later P3 amplitudes. Angry expressions elicited larger N170s than happy ones, but only for faces with the schizophrenia label. Thus, angry faces with the schizophrenia designation appeared to be particularly salient and automatically grabbed our participants' attention, at least initially. In contrast, happy faces with the schizophrenia label elicited larger P3s than those with the mentally healthy designation. This finding suggests that later attentional processes were recruited more when someone with a diagnosis of schizophrenia looked happy, perhaps indicating that participants found this surprising.
Father-child dyads exhibit unique inter-subject synchronization during co-viewing of animation video stimuli.
Azhari A, Bizzego A, Esposito G
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34407724 · Publisher ↗
Inter-subject synchronization reflects the entrainment of two individuals to each other's brain signals. In parent-child dyads, synchronization indicates an attunement to each other's emotional states. Despite the ubiqui...
Inter-subject synchronization reflects the entrainment of two individuals to each other's brain signals. In parent-child dyads, synchronization indicates an attunement to each other's emotional states. Despite the ubiquity with which parents and their children watch screen media together, no study has investigated synchronization in father-child dyads during co-viewing. The present study examined whether father-child dyads would exhibit inter-subject synchronization that is unique to the dyad and hence would not be observed in control dyads (i.e., randomly paired signals). Hyperscanning fNIRS was used to record the prefrontal cortex (PFC) signals of 29 fathers and their preschool-aged children as they co-viewed children's shows. Three 1-min videos from "Brave", "Peppa Pig" and "The Incredibles" were presented to each dyad and children's ratings of video positivity and familiarity were obtained. Four PFC clusters were analyzed: medial left, medial right, frontal left and frontal right clusters. Results demonstrated that true father-child dyads showed significantly greater synchronization than control dyads in the medial left cluster during the emotionally arousing conflict scene. Dyads with older fathers displayed less synchrony and older fathers, compared to younger ones, exhibited greater activity. These findings suggest unique inter-subject synchronization in father-child dyads during co-viewing which is potentially modulated by parental age.
Social cerebellum in goal-directed navigation.
Li M, Ma Q, Baetens K … +5 more , Pu M, Deroost N, Baeken C, Heleven E, Van Overwalle F
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34404321 · Publisher ↗
The posterior cerebellum is responsible for the understanding and learning of sequences of actions by others, which are a prerequisite for social understanding. This study investigates this cerebellar function while navi...
The posterior cerebellum is responsible for the understanding and learning of sequences of actions by others, which are a prerequisite for social understanding. This study investigates this cerebellar function while navigating toward a goal in a social context. Participants undertook a novel social navigation task requiring them to memorize and subsequently reproduce a protagonist's trajectory through a grid toward a desirable goal. As a nonsocial control condition, a ball underwent the same trajectory by passively rolling through the grid toward the same endpoint. To establish that memorizing and reproducing a trajectory is a critical cerebellar function, two non-sequencing control conditions were created, which involved the observation only of the trajectory by the protagonist or ball. Our results showed that the posterior cerebellar Crus II was involved in memorizing both social and nonsocial trajectories, along with the parahippocampal gyrus and other cortical areas involved in social cognition. As hypothesized, cerebellar Crus I was more active when memorizing social as opposed to nonsocial trajectories. Moreover, cerebellar Crus I and II, and lobule VI, were activated when reproducing both social and nonsocial trajectories. These findings highlight the involvement of the posterior cerebellar Crus in supporting human goal-directed social navigation.
The Underlying neural mechanisms of interpersonal situations on collaborative ability: A hyperscanning study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
Yang Q, Song X, Dong M … +2 more , Li J, Proctor RW
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34380360 · Publisher ↗
The collaborative ability to coordinate an individual with others is critical to performance of joint actions. Prior studies found that different types of interpersonal situations have more or less impact on the collabor...
The collaborative ability to coordinate an individual with others is critical to performance of joint actions. Prior studies found that different types of interpersonal situations have more or less impact on the collaborative ability of joint actions, but the results are controversial. To clarify the influence of interpersonal situations on collaborative ability, we adopted the joint Simon task, a choice-reaction task that two people perform together. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to study the neural mechanisms of interpersonal situations on collaborative ability and task performance under payoffs that fostered competition or cooperation. The fNIRS results showed that significant inter-brain neural synchronization (INS) occurred in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL) for both situations. Moreover, for the competition situation, the pairs also shown a significant INS in the right IPL. These results imply that the bilateral IPL is involved in cooperation and competition due to involvement of common concern and understanding of intention. The right IPL may be more crucial for competition because of the psychological resources involved in distinguishing self and others. Eventually, the INS in competition was better than in the other situations, correlating with higher performance of the joint task as well.
5-HT receptor within the amygdaloid complex modulates pain hypersensitivity induced by empathy model of cohabitation with a partner in chronic pain condition in mice.
Rodrigues Tavares LR, Pelarin V, Baptista-de-Souza D … +3 more , Pereira Ferrari D, Nunes-de-Souza RL, Canto-de-Souza A
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34253155 · Publisher ↗
Cohabitation with a partner undergoing chronic pain induces pain hypersensitivity. Among a lot of other neurochemical pathways, the serotonin (5-HT) role, specifically the 5-HT receptor (5-HTR), in the amygdala has never...
Cohabitation with a partner undergoing chronic pain induces pain hypersensitivity. Among a lot of other neurochemical pathways, the serotonin (5-HT) role, specifically the 5-HT receptor (5-HTR), in the amygdala has never been evaluated in this model. Here we studied the effects of the amygdala's chemical inhibition, its neuronal activation pattern, and 5-HT, 5-HIAA, and 5-HT turnover within the amygdala. Furthermore, the systemic and intra-amygdala 5-HTR activation and blockade in mice that cohabited with a conspecific subjected to chronic constriction injury were investigated. Male Swiss mice were housed in partners for 28 days. The dyads were divided into two groups on the 14 day: cagemate nerve constriction (CNC) and cagemate sham (CS). On the 24 day, cagemates underwent a stereotaxic surgery (when necessary) and, on the 28 day, they were evaluated on the writhing test. The amygdala inactivation promotes pain-hypersensitivity behaviors in groups and dyads; cohabitation with a partner with chronic pain did not change FosB-labeled cells in the amygdala's nucleus and increases 5-HT turnover in cagemates. Systemic and intra-amygdala 5-HTR activation attenuated and enhanced the number of writhes, respectively. In contrast, 5-HTR blockade reduced hypersensitivity pain response. Results suggest the involvement of amygdala serotonergic signaling via 5-HTR in empathy-like behavior.
Neural coding of human values is underpinned by brain areas representing the core self in the cortical midline region.
Leszkowicz E, Maio GR, Linden DEJ … +1 more , Ihssen N
Soc Neurosci · 2021 Oct · PMID 34238118 · Publisher ↗
The impact of human values on our choices depends on their nature. Self-Transcendence values motivate us to act for the benefit of others and care for the environment. Self-Enhancement values motivate us to act for our b...
The impact of human values on our choices depends on their nature. Self-Transcendence values motivate us to act for the benefit of others and care for the environment. Self-Enhancement values motivate us to act for our benefit. The present study examines differences in the neural processes underlying these two value domains. Extending our previous research, we used fMRI to explore first of all neural correlates of Self-Transcendence vs Self-Enhancement values, with a particular focus on the putative role of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), which has been linked to a self-transcendent mind-set. Additionally, we investigated the neural basis of Openness to Change vs Conservation values. We asked participants to reflect on and rate values as guiding principles in their lives while undergoing fMRI. Mental processing of Self-Transcendence values was associated with higher brain activity in the dorsomedial (BA9, BA8) and ventromedial (BA10) prefrontal cortices, as compared to Self-Enhancement values. The former involved activation and the latter deactivation of those regions. We did not detect differences in brain activation between Openness to Change vs Conservation values. Self-Transcendence values thus shared brain regions with social processes that have previously been linked to a self-transcendent mind-set, and the "core self" representation.
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