The neuroscience of race

Influence of Economic Scarcity on Race Perception

Racial socioeconomic gaps are widened in periods of economic recession. Besides social and institutional factors, black people also struggle with many psychological factors. The literature reports racial-biased complex behaviors and high-level processes that are influenced by economic scarcity. A previous study found a bias at the perceptual level: an experimental manipulation of scarcity (a subliminal priming paradigm) lowered the black-white race categorization threshold. Here we present a conceptual replication in a higher ecological setup. In our main analysis we compared the categorization threshold of participants that received the Brazilian government's emergency economic aid in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 136) and participants that did not receive the economic aid (n = 135) in an online psychophysical task that presented faces in a black-white race continuum. Additionally, we analyzed the economic impact of COVID-19 on household income, and in cases of family unemployment. Our results do not support the claim that perception of race is influenced by economic scarcity. Interestingly, we found that when people differ greatly in terms of racial prejudice, they encode visual information related to race differently. People with higher scores on a prejudice scale needed more phenotypic traits of the black race to categorize a face as black. We discuss the results in terms of differences in method and sample.

Neural Tracking of Race-Related Information During Face Perception

Previous studies have identified two group-level processes, neural representations of interracial between-group difference and intraracial within-group similarity, that contribute to the racial categorization of faces. What remains unclear is how the brain tracks race-related information that varies across different faces as an individual-level neural process involved in race perception. In three studies, we recorded functional MRI signals when Chinese adults performed different tasks on morphed faces in which proportions of pixels contributing to perceived racial identity (Asian vs White) and expression (pain vs neutral) varied independently. We found that, during a pain expression judgment task, tracking other-race and same-race-related information in perceived faces recruited the ventral occipitotemporal cortices and medial prefrontal/anterior temporal cortices, respectively. However, neural tracking of race-related information tended to be weakened during explicit race judgments on perceived faces. During a donation task, the medial prefrontal activity also tracked race-related information that distinguished between two perceived faces for altruistic decision-making and encoded the Euclidean distance between the two faces that predicted decision-making speeds. Our findings revealed task-dependent neural mechanisms underlying the tracking of race-related information during face perception and altruistic decision-making.

Conceptualizing an antiracist framework for neuroscience research in art therapy: a qualitative pilot study

Introduction

Advances in social cognitive neuroscience research have contributed deeper understanding of neural processes relevant to art therapy, and of social, interrelational phenomena including racism and implicit bias. Confoundingly, emerging critical discourse about neuroscience research design highlighted systemic racism, implicit bias, and inequality perpetuated by imaging technologies, lack of diversity, and funding disparities. Emphasis toward antiracist practices within cognitive neuroscience research and various other fields has grown; however, literature on antiracist research practices within art therapy research is scant.

Methods

The purpose of this qualitative pilot research study was to elicit conceptualizations about antiracist research practices from art therapy researchers in response to relevant literature. Purposive sampling was used to recruit four female art therapy researchers from the United States (U.S.) and Europe. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using grounded theory coding resulting in three main categories, seven themes, and subthemes. Member-checking and reflexive journaling were employed to enhance credibility.

Results

Core categories revealed points of convergence across participants, areas of concern, and requirements outlining antiracist research practices in art therapy. The first core category, shared beliefs and values, had three themes: neuroscience-informed perspective of art therapy; neuroscience research can strengthen art therapy theories; and infusion of antiracism and neuroscience into art therapy begins with education. The second core category, barriers and challenges, had two themes: potential credibility and legitimacy concerns for art therapy; and difficult conversations about disparities in awareness, diversity, and resources. The third core category, requirements and responsibilities for antiracist research, had two themes: due diligence to build accountability and legitimacy; and inclusion of diversity in art therapy research, and subthemes.

Discussion

Preliminary outcomes revealed ideas aligning current antiracist neuroscience research discourse with art therapy experimental research practices. The small group of neuroscience-focused art therapist researchers provided realistic considerations about amplifying discourse within the art therapy profession and infusing antiracist research into neuro-informed art therapy curriculum, and prioritizing diversity throughout experimental research design. An antiracist art therapy research framework with principles including education, intentionality, and diversity was proposed, along with recommendations for further research using the framework and to implement the framework into graduate art therapy education.

Unraveling other-race face perception with GAN-based image reconstruction

The other-race effect (ORE) is the disadvantage of recognizing faces of another race than one's own. While its prevalence is behaviorally well documented, the representational basis of ORE remains unclear. This study employs StyleGAN2, a deep learning technique for generating photorealistic images to uncover face representations and to investigate ORE's representational basis. To this end, we collected pairwise visual similarity ratings with same- and other-race faces across East Asian and White participants exhibiting robust levels of ORE. Leveraging the significant overlap in representational similarity between the GAN's latent space and perceptual representations in human participants, we designed an image reconstruction approach aiming to reveal internal face representations from behavioral similarity data. This methodology yielded hyper-realistic depictions of face percepts, with reconstruction accuracy well above chance, as well as an accuracy advantage for same-race over other-race reconstructions, which mirrored ORE in both populations. Further, a comparison of reconstructions across participant race revealed a novel age bias, with other-race face reconstructions appearing younger than their same-race counterpart. Thus, our work proposes a new approach to exploiting the utility of GANs in image reconstruction and provides new avenues in the study of ORE.

Revealing the neural representations underlying other-race face perception

The other-race effect (ORE) refers to poorer recognition for faces of other races than one's own. This study investigates the neural and representational basis of ORE in East Asian and White participants using behavioral measures, neural decoding, and image reconstruction based on electroencephalography (EEG) data. Our investigation identifies a reliable neural counterpart of ORE, with reduced decoding accuracy for other-race faces, and it relates this result to higher density of other-race face representations in face space. Then, we characterize the temporal dynamics and the prominence of ORE for individual variability at the neural level. Importantly, we use a data-driven image reconstruction approach to reveal visual biases underlying other-race face perception, including a tendency to perceive other-race faces as more typical, younger, and more expressive. These findings provide neural evidence for a classical account of ORE invoking face space compression for other-race faces. Further, they indicate that ORE involves not only reduced identity information but also broader, systematic distortions in visual representation with considerable cognitive and social implications.

The Social Context of Consciousness: An Integrative Framework for Neuroscience, Psychology, and Law

This article discusses social context of consciousness, the role of the brain and the psychological processes of their actions in the context of the socio-legal framework. Consciousness is understood without integrating with broader social and cultural situations. The understanding of consciousness also requires one's critical understanding of social context and group processes. Law has a more significant role in demystifying itself from the brain and consciousness trajectory and keeping a balance by considering precedents critically. This article also ventures into how consciousness can be understood in the social arena of decolonization and the possibility of neuroscience in informing the law in its reformation for justice.

The paradoxical brain: paradoxes impact conflict perspectives through increased neural alignment

Mental perspectives can sometimes be changed by psychological interventions. For instance, when applied in the context of intergroup conflicts, interventions, such as the paradoxical thinking intervention, may unfreeze ingrained negative outgroup attitudes and thereby promote progress toward peacemaking. Yet, at present, the evaluation of interventions' impact relies almost exclusively on self-reported and behavioral measures that are informative, but are also prone to social desirability and self-presentational biases. In the present study, magnetoencephalography tracked neural alignment, before and after the paradoxical thinking intervention, during the processing of auditory narratives over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thereby evaluated the intervention's potential to change individuals' (n = 80) mental perspectives over the conflict. Compared to baseline, the conflict-targeted intervention yielded a specific significant increased neural alignment in the posterior superior temporal sulcus while processing incongruent as well as congruent political narratives of the conflict. This may be interpreted as a possible change in perspective over the conflict. The results and their interpretations are discussed in view of the critical added value of neuroimaging when assessing interventions to potentially reveal changes in mental perspectives or the way in which they are processed, even in contexts of entrenched resistance to reconsider one's ideological stance.

On the neural networks of self and other bias and their role in emergent social interactions

Extensive research has documented the brain networks that play an integral role in bias, or the alteration and filtration of information processing in a manner that fundamentally favors an individual. The roots of bias, whether self- or other-oriented, are a complex constellation of neural and psychological processes that start at the most fundamental levels of sensory processing. From the millisecond information is received in the brain it is filtered at various levels and through various brain networks in relation to extant intrinsic activity to provide individuals with a perception of reality that complements and satisfies the conscious perceptions they have for themselves and the cultures in which they were reared. The products of these interactions, in turn, are dynamically altered by the introduction of others, be they friends or strangers who are similar or different in socially meaningful ways. While much is known about the various ways that basic biases alter specific aspects of neural function to support various forms of bias, the breadth and scope of the phenomenon remains entirely unclear. The purpose of this review is to examine the brain networks that shape (i.e., bias) the self-concept and how interactions with similar (ingroup) compared to dissimilar (outgroup) others alter these network (and subsequent interpersonal) interactions in fundamental ways. Throughout, focus is placed on an emerging understanding of the brain as a complex system, which suggests that many of these network interactions likely occur on a non-linear scale that blurs the lines between network hierarchies.

Favoritism or bias? Cooperation and competition under different intergroup relationships: evidence from EEG hyperscanning

Cooperation and competition are the most common forms of social interaction in various social relationships. Intergroup relationships have been posited to influence individuals' interpersonal interactions significantly. Using electroencephalography hyperscanning, this study aimed to establish whether intergroup relationships influence interpersonal cooperation and competition and the underlying neural mechanisms. According to the results, the in-group Coop-index is better than the out-group, whereas the out-group Comp-index is stronger than the in-group. The in-group functional connectivity between the frontal-central region and the right temporoparietal junction in the β band was stronger in competition than cooperation. The out-group functional connectivity between the frontal-central region and the left temporoparietal junction in the α band was stronger in cooperation than competition. In both cooperation and competition, the in-group exhibited higher interbrain synchronization between the prefrontal cortex and parietal region in the θ band, as well as between the frontal-central region and frontal-central region in the α band, compared to the out-group. The intrabrain phase-locking value in both the α and β bands can effectively predict performance in competition tasks. Interbrain phase-locking value in both the α and θ bands can be effectively predicted in a performance cooperation task. This study offers neuroscientific evidence for in-group favoritism and out-group bias at an interpersonal level.

Implicit racial biases are lower in more populous more diverse and less segregated US cities

Implicit biases - differential attitudes towards members of distinct groups - are pervasive in human societies and create inequities across many aspects of life. Recent research has revealed that implicit biases are generally driven by social contexts, but not whether they are systematically influenced by the ways that humans self-organize in cities. We leverage complex system modeling in the framework of urban scaling theory to predict differences in these biases between cities. Our model links spatial scales from city-wide infrastructure to individual psychology to predict that cities that are more populous, more diverse, and less segregated are less biased. We find empirical support for these predictions in U.S. cities with Implicit Association Test data spanning a decade from 2.7 million individuals and U.S. Census demographic data. Additionally, we find that changes in cities' social environments precede changes in implicit biases at short time-scales, but this relationship is bi-directional at longer time-scales. We conclude that the social organization of cities may influence the strength of these biases.

The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain

The experience of ethnic, racial, and structural inequalities is increasingly recognized as detrimental to health, and early studies suggest that its experience in pregnant mothers may affect the developing fetus. We characterized discrimination and acculturation experiences in a predominantly Hispanic sample of pregnant adolescent women and assessed their association with functional connectivity in their neonate's brain. We collected self-report measures of acculturation, discrimination, maternal distress (i.e., perceived stress, childhood trauma, and depressive symptoms), and socioeconomic status in 165 women. Then, we performed a data-driven clustering of acculturation, discrimination, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, trauma, and socioeconomic status variables during pregnancy to determine whether discrimination or acculturation clustered into distinct factors. Discrimination and acculturation styles loaded onto different factors from perceived stress, depressive symptoms, trauma, and socioeconomic status, suggesting that they were distinct from other factors in our sample. We associated these data-driven maternal phenotypes (discrimination and acculturation styles) with measures of resting-state functional MRI connectivity of the infant amygdala (n = 38). Higher maternal report of assimilation was associated with weaker connectivity between their neonate's amygdala and bilateral fusiform gyrus. Maternal experience of discrimination was associated with weaker connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex and stronger connectivity between the amygdala and fusiform of their neonate. Cautiously, the results may suggest a similarity to self-contained studies with adults, noting that the experience of discrimination and acculturation may influence amygdala circuitry across generations. Further prospective studies are essential that consider a more diverse population of minoritized individuals and with a comprehensive assessment of ethnic, racial, and structural factors.

Neural responses to gender-based microaggressions in academic medicine

Gender-based microaggressions have been associated with persistent disparities between women and men in academia. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying those often subtle and unintentional yet detrimental behaviors. Here, we assessed the neural responses to gender-based microaggressions in 28 early career faculty in medicine (N = 16 female, N = 12 male sex) using fMRI. Participants watched 33 videos of situations demonstrating gender-based microaggressions and control situations in academic medicine. Video topics had been previously identified through real-life anecdotes about microaggression from women faculty and were scripted and reenacted using professional actors. Primary voxel-wise analyses comparing group differences in activation elucidated a significant group by condition interaction in a right-lateralized cluster across the frontal (inferior and middle frontal gyri, frontal pole, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus) and parietal lobes (supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus). Whereas women faculty exhibited reduced activation in these regions during the microaggression relative to the control condition, the opposite was true for men. Posthoc analyses showed that these patterns were significantly associated with the degree to which participants reported feeling judged for their gender in academic medicine. Lastly, secondary exploratory ROI analyses showed significant between-group differences in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. Women activated these two regions less in the microaggression condition compared to the control condition, whereas men did not. These findings indicate that the observation of gender-based microaggressions results in a specific pattern of neural reactivity in women early career faculty.

Neural tracking of social hierarchies in adolescents' real-world social networks

In the current study, we combined sociometric nominations and neuroimaging techniques to examine adolescents' neural tracking of peers from their real-world social network that varied in social preferences and popularity. Adolescent participants from an entire school district (N = 873) completed peer sociometric nominations of their grade at school, and a subset of participants (N = 117, Mage = 13.59 years) completed a neuroimaging task in which they viewed peer faces from their social networks. We revealed two neural processes by which adolescents track social preference: (1) the fusiform face area, an important region for early visual perception and social categorization, simultaneously represented both peers high in social preference and low in social preference; (2) the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which was differentially engaged in tracking peers high and low in social preference. No regions specifically tracked peers high in popularity and only the inferior parietal lobe, temporoparietal junction, midcingulate cortex and insula were involved in tracking unpopular peers. This is the first study to examine the neural circuits that support adolescents' perception of peer-based social networks. These findings identify the neural processes that allow youths to spontaneously keep track of peers' social value within their social network.

Uncertain threat is associated with greater impulsive actions and neural dissimilarity to Black versus White faces

Race is a social construct that contributes to group membership and heightens emotional arousal in intergroup contexts. Little is known about how emotional arousal, specifically uncertain threat, influences behavior and brain processes in response to race information. We investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated uncertain threat on impulsive actions to Black versus White faces in a community sample (n = 106) of Black and White adults. While undergoing fMRI, participants performed an emotional go/no-go task under three conditions of uncertainty: 1) anticipation of an uncertain threat (i.e., unpredictable loud aversive sound); 2) anticipation of an uncertain reward (i.e., unpredictable receipt of money); and 3) no anticipation of an uncertain event. Representational similarity analysis was used to examine the neural representations of race information across functional brain networks between conditions of uncertainty. Participants-regardless of their own race-showed greater impulsivity and neural dissimilarity in response to Black versus White faces across all functional brain networks in conditions of uncertain threat relative to other conditions. This pattern of greater neural dissimilarity under threat was enhanced in individuals with high implicit racial bias. Our results illustrate the distinct and important influence of uncertain threat on global differentiation in how race information is represented in the brain, which may contribute to racially biased behavior.

Exposure to Multicultural Context Affects Neural Response to Out-Group Faces: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Recent migration and globalization trends have led to the emergence of ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse countries. Understanding the unfolding of social dynamics in multicultural contexts becomes a matter of common interest to promote national harmony and social cohesion among groups. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed to (i) explore the neural signature of the in-group bias in the multicultural context; and (ii) assess the relationship between the brain activity and people's system-justifying ideologies. A sample of 43 (22 females) Chinese Singaporeans (M = 23.36; SD = 1.41) was recruited. All participants completed the Right Wing Authoritarianism Scale and Social Dominance Orientation Scale to assess their system-justifying ideologies. Subsequently, four types of visual stimuli were presented in an fMRI task: Chinese (in-group), Indian (typical out-group), Arabic (non-typical out-group), and Caucasian (non-typical out-group) faces. The right middle occipital gyrus and the right postcentral gyrus showed enhanced activity when participants were exposed to in-group (Chinese) rather than out-group (Arabic, Indian, and Caucasian) faces. Regions having a role in mentalization, empathetic resonance, and social cognition showed enhanced activity to Chinese (in-group) rather than Indian (typical out-group) faces. Similarly, regions typically involved in socioemotional and reward-related processing showed increased activation when participants were shown Chinese (in-group) rather than Arabic (non-typical out-group) faces. The neural activations in the right postcentral gyrus for in-group rather than out-group faces and in the right caudate in response to Chinese rather than Arabic faces were in a significant positive correlation with participants' Right Wing Authoritarianism scores (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the activity in the right middle occipital gyrus for Chinese rather than out-group faces was in a significant negative correlation with participants' Social Dominance Orientation scores (p < 0.05). Results are discussed by considering the typical role played by the activated brain regions in socioemotional processes as well as the role of familiarity to out-group faces.

The Privileged Status of Peer Faces: Subordinate-level Neural Representations of Faces in Emerging Adults

Faces can be represented at a variety of different subordinate levels (e.g., race) that can become "privileged" for visual recognition in perceivers and is reflected as patterns of biases (e.g., own-race bias). The mechanisms encoding privileged status are likely varied, making it difficult to predict how neural systems represent subordinate-level biases in face processing. Here, we investigate the neural basis of subordinate-level representations of human faces in the ventral visual pathway, by leveraging recent behavioral findings indicating the privileged nature of peer faces in identity recognition for adolescents and emerging adults (i.e., ages 18-25 years). We tested 166 emerging adults in a face recognition paradigm and a subset of 31 of these participants in two fMRI task paradigms. We showed that emerging adults exhibit a peer bias in face recognition behavior, which indicates a privileged status for a subordinate-level category of faces that is not predicted based on experience alone. This privileged status of peer faces is supported by multiple neural mechanisms within the ventral visual pathway, including enhanced neural magnitude and neural size in the neural size in the fusiform area (FFA1), which is a critical part of the face-processing network that fundamentally supports the representations of subordinate-level categories of faces. These findings demonstrate organizational principles that the human ventral visual pathway uses to privilege relevant social information in face representations, which is essential for navigating human social interactions. It will be important to understand whether similar mechanisms support representations of other subordinate-level categories like race and gender.

Reading the mind in the eyes of Black and White people: Interracial contact and perceived race affects brain activity when inferring mental states

Inferring others' mental states, or mentalizing, is a critical social cognitive ability that underlies humans' remarkable capacity for complex social interactions. Recent work suggests that interracial contact shapes the recruitment of brain regions involved in mentalizing during impression formation. However, it remains unclear how a target's perceived racial group and a perceiver's previous contact with that racial group shapes mental state inferences. In this study, we examined brain activity in regions of interest associated with mentalizing and race perception among self-identified White perceivers who varied in lifetime contact while they inferred secondary emotions from perceived White eyes and perceived Black eyes (i.e., the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test). The interaction between lifetime contact and perceived target race predicted activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS), a region consistently implicated in mental state inferences from perceptual cues, tracking eye gaze, and biological motion. Low and average contact White perceivers showed more left STS activity when inferring mental states from perceived White eyes than perceived Black eyes, whereas high contact White perceivers showed similar left STS activity regardless of perceived target race. These results indicate that interracial contact decreases racial biases in the recruitment of regions involved in mentalizing when inferring mental states from perceptual cues.

Neural Impacts of Stigma, Racism, and Discrimination

Racism is a chronic stressor fueled by stigma that can result in significant distress and dysfunction as well as negatively affect emotions, behavior, quality of life, and brain health. The effects of stigma and discrimination emerge early in life and have long-term consequences. In this review, we sought to use neuroscience research to describe how stigma, racism, and discrimination can impact brain and mental health. Societal stigmas may be encoded by associative fear learning and pattern completion networks, and experiences of racial discrimination may similarly affect threat-responsive regions and circuits. Race-related differences in brain function and structure supporting threat circuitry are largely attenuated when negative life experiences and discrimination are taken into account. Downstream, chronic activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary axis in the context of discrimination and stigma can contribute to physical health disparities in minoritized and marginalized groups. Finally, we discuss models that provide a framework for interventions and societal-level strategies across ecologic systems to build resilience and foster posttraumatic growth.

Community-level explicit racial prejudice potentiates whites' neural responses to black faces: A spatial meta-analysis

We evaluated the hypothesis that neural responses to racial out-group members vary systematically based on the level of racial prejudice in the surrounding community. To do so, we conducted a spatial meta-analysis, which included a comprehensive set of studies (k = 22; N = 481). Specifically, we tested whether community-level racial prejudice moderated neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces in primarily White participants. Racial attitudes, obtained from Project Implicit, were aggregated to the county (k = 17; N = 10,743) in which each study was conducted. Multi-level kernel density analysis demonstrated that significant differences in neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces in right amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were detected more often in communities with higher (vs. lower) levels of explicit (but not implicit) racial prejudice. These findings advance social-cognitive neuroscience by identifying aspects of macro-social contexts that may alter neural responses to out-group members.

Developmental Considerations for Understanding Perceptions and Impacts of Identity-Related Differences: Focusing on Adolescence

Biological psychiatry, similar to many other scientific fields, is grappling with the challenge of revising its practices with an eye toward promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity. One arena in which much of this work will have significant impact is in developmental science generally and the study of adolescence specifically. Adolescence is a critical period during human development during which important social, neural, and cognitive maturation processes take place. It is also a time marked by risky behaviors and the onset of a range of mental disorders. Social and developmental research has provided insight into the cognitive and neural processes by which perceptions of identity-related differences emerge. Clinical research aimed at understanding how individuals from diverse backgrounds navigate the transition period of adolescence is critical for identifying the unique factors underlying risk and resilience in minoritized populations. Taking a developmental perspective, we review processes by which the brain understands group differences and how the developmental timing of this can influence antecedents of psychological distress. We close with a call to action, pointing to important understudied areas within the field of biological psychiatry that are critical for supporting mental health among diverse adolescent populations.

Neural Basis of Prejudice and Prejudice Reduction

Social prejudices, based on race, ethnicity, gender, or other identities, pervade how we perceive, think about, and act toward others. Research on the neural basis of prejudice seeks to illuminate its effects by investigating the neurocognitive processes through which prejudice is formed, represented in the mind, expressed in behavior, and potentially reduced. In this article, we review current knowledge about the social neuroscience of prejudice regarding its influence on rapid social perception, representation in memory, emotional expression and relation to empathy, and regulation, and we discuss implications of this work for prejudice reduction interventions.

Prospective longitudinal associations between harsh parenting and corticolimbic function during adolescence

Childhood adversity is thought to undermine youth socioemotional development via altered neural function within regions that support emotion processing. These effects are hypothesized to be developmentally specific, with adversity in early childhood sculpting subcortical structures (e.g., amygdala) and adversity during adolescence impacting later-developing structures (e.g., prefrontal cortex; PFC). However, little work has tested these theories directly in humans. Using prospectively collected longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) (N = 4,144) and neuroimaging data from a subsample of families recruited in adolescence (N = 162), the current study investigated the trajectory of harsh parenting across childhood (i.e., ages 3 to 9) and how initial levels versus changes in harsh parenting across childhood were associated with corticolimbic activation and connectivity during socioemotional processing. Harsh parenting in early childhood (indexed by the intercept term from a linear growth curve model) was associated with less amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to angry facial expressions. In contrast, change in harsh parenting across childhood (indexed by the slope term) was associated with less PFC, but not amygdala, activation to angry faces. Increases in, but not initial levels of, harsh parenting were also associated with stronger positive amygdala-PFC connectivity during angry face processing.

Evidence of shifting racial biases?

Racial biases are not fixed; they shift over time as cultural narratives about various social groups shift. Such shifts are usually triggered by catalytic events such as the murder of George Floyd. Dang et al. (2022) potentially document such a shift in brain responses to African Americans experiencing police violence; participants engage brain mechanisms involved in mentalising more when witnessing such atrocities, evidence of a lack of dehumanisation. This commentary urges caution towards such interpretations of these findings and encourages future research to better understanding shifting racial biases over time.

Brain System for Social Categorization by Narrative Roles

The cognitive system applies categorical thinking to facilitate perception of the rich environment around us. In person cognition, research has focused on the roles of gender, race, age, or appearance in social categorical thinking. Here we investigated how narrative roles, as portrayed by different cinematic characters, are categorized in the neurocognitive system. Under functional MRI, 17 human participants (7 females) were asked to make different judgments regarding personality traits of 16 renowned cinematic characters representing four roles: hero, sidekick, mentor, and villain. Classification analysis showed a brain network, comprising the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, the precuneus and the temporoparietal junction bilaterally, and the left occipital face area (OFA), to discriminate among the four roles. No such classification was found between other individual attributes including age or the associated film. Moreover, regions overlapping the default mode network (DMN) were found to better discriminate between roles, rather than the individual characters, while the OFA was found to better discriminate between individuals. These results demonstrate the inherent role of roles in person cognition, and suggest an intimate relation between roles categorization and self-referential activity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Social categorization, the assignment of different people in our social network to subgroups, is a powerful strategy in social cognition. How is this managed by the brain? We provide evidence that different characters from different stories, representing similar roles in their corresponding narrative, elicit similar brain activation patterns, as revealed by functional MRI. Unlike previous studies of social categorization, these brain activations were similar to those elicited by social cognition rather than face processing, and included regions at the prefrontal cortex, the precuneus, and the temporoparietal junction. The identified brain network significantly overlapped the default mode network. We suggest that social categorization by roles is fundamental to the cognitive system, relying on brain regions related to social cognition.

The role of expertise and culture in visual art appreciation

Is art appreciation universal? Previous evidence suggests a general preference for representational art over abstract art, and a tendency to like art originating from one’s own culture more than another culture (an ingroup bias), modulated by art expertise. However, claims about universality are difficult given that most research has focused on Western populations. Across two pre-registered and statistically powered experiments, we explore the role of culture and art expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of Indian and Western paintings and dance depicting both abstract and representational content, by inviting expert and art-naïve Indian and Western participants to rate stimuli on beauty and liking. Results suggest an ingroup bias (for dance) and a preference for representational art (for paintings) exists, both modulated by art expertise. As predicted, the ingroup bias was present only in art-naïve participants, and the preference for representational art was lower in art experts, but this modulation was present only in Western participants. The current findings have two main implications: (1) they inform and constrain understanding of universality of aesthetic appreciation, cautioning against generalising models of empirical aesthetics to non-western populations and across art forms, (2) they highlight the importance of art experience as a medium to counter prejudices.

Neural representations of others' traits predict social decisions

SignificancePeople's decisions about how to treat others are known to be influenced by societally shared expectations about the typical traits of people from particular social groups (stereotypes). We combined a social psychological framework, an economic game, and multivariate functional MRI analysis to investigate whether and how trait inferences are instantiated neurally in the service of behavior toward members of different social groups. Multidimensional representations of trait content were found in brain regions associated with social cognition and in a region associated with inference-based decision-making: the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Only OFC representations predicted individual participants' behavior, suggesting that although stereotypes are also represented in social cognition regions, they exert influence on behavior via decision-making mechanisms centered in the OFC.

Race and the Ivory Tower: An Antiracism Exercise for an Undergraduate Neuroscience Classroom

This article details an antiracism exercise completed in an introductory undergraduate neuroscience class. Students completed an online pre-class multimedia module entitled "Race and the Ivory Tower" covering racism in science and medicine, the neuroscience behind bias, and the impact of race and racism on health outcomes. The module included two videos, one podcast, and a peer-reviewed journal article, alongside several optional additional resources written for both academic and lay audiences. After completing the module, students participated in an open-ended online discussion followed by an anonymous survey to elicit feedback on the exercise. As a continuation of the antiracism exercise, students researched and reported on the work of a Black or nonwhite Hispanic/Latino scientist for a final project later in the semester. Sixty-eight of 69 students participated in the discussion, and the majority discussed the neuroscience of bias and public health effects of racism. Most students also discussed the importance of the module contents or further questions that they would explore. Sixty of 69 students answered the anonymous survey, where most students reported a better understanding of racism after interacting with the content. Additionally, most students felt better prepared to discuss racism in science and medicine and more able to identify unconscious bias. Finally, students reported that they enjoyed the module contents and online discussion. Overall, this exercise effectively introduced students to the ongoing challenge of racism in science and medicine through both scientific and sociological lenses. Students recognized the collective importance of the content, which was our goal as they represent the future leaders in neuroscience and medicine and should be equipped to address leading issues within their field.

What Bias Management Can Learn From Change Management? Utilizing Change Framework to Review and Explore Bias Strategies

This paper conducted a preliminary study of reviewing and exploring bias strategies using a framework of a different discipline: change management. The hypothesis here is: If the major problem of implicit bias strategies is that they do not translate into actual changes in behaviors, then it could be helpful to learn from studies that have contributed to successful change interventions such as reward management, social neuroscience, health behavioral change, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The result of this integrated approach is: (1) current bias strategies can be improved and new ones can be developed with insight from adjunct study fields in change management; (2) it could be more sustainable to invest in a holistic and proactive bias strategy approach that targets the social environment, eliminating the very condition under which biases arise; and (3) while implicit biases are automatic, future studies should invest more on strategies that empower people as "change agents" who can act proactively to regulate the very environment that gives rise to their biased thoughts and behaviors.

Socioeconomic disparities and neuroplasticity: Moving toward adaptation, intersectionality, and inclusion

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) has far-reaching linkages with children's cognitive and socioemotional development, academic achievement, health, and brain structure and function. Rather than focusing on understandings about the neuroscience of socioeconomic inequality that have recently been reviewed elsewhere, the present article reviews several new directions in the field, beginning first with a consideration of the deficit versus adaptation framework. Although scientists largely agree that socioeconomic disparities in brain development are experience-dependent phenomena rooted in neuroplasticity, historically, such differences have been framed as deficits, which may benefit from intervention. However, emerging research suggests that some developmental differences among children experiencing adversity may alternatively be considered context-appropriate adaptations to the individual's environment. We next discuss how socioeconomic circumstances are inextricably intertwined with race, and consider how measurement of racism and discrimination must be part of a full understanding of the neuroscience of socioeconomic inequality. We argue that scientists must consciously recruit racially and socioeconomically diverse samples-and include measures of SES, race, and discrimination in analyses-to promote a more complete understanding of the neuroplasticity specifically, and psychological science more broadly. We discuss the extent to which researcher and editor positionality have contributed to these problems historically, and conclude by considering paths forward. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exposure to acute stress affects the retrieval of out-group related bias in healthy men

Individuals have a tendency to show enhanced vigilance to groups of which they themselves are not a member. Stress can up-regulate hypervigilance towards threatening stimuli and was shown to promote the reinstatement of out-group related biases in a previous study conducted in women only. The current study examines how exposure to acute stress affects the retrieval of out-group related extinction biases in male participants. Results showed that men exerted a specific out-group related bias at the beginning of extinction training indexed by higher skin conductance responses (SCRs) towards out-group faces, while stress led to a return of this extinguished out-group bias. Specifically, the stress group showed higher SCRs towards out-group faces during retrieval compared to the control group and the bias index was negatively related to post-stress cardiovascular recovery. These results indicate the important interaction between stress and intergroup bias in fear conditioning, along with a potential modulation of sex.

Composition of place, minority vs. majority group-status, & contextualized experience: The role of level of group representation, perceiving place in group-based terms, and sense of belonging in shaping collective behavior

The current studies (N = 1,709) explore why demographic composition of place matters. First, this work demonstrates that relative level of group representation affects one’s experience of place in the form of self-definition (self-categorization), perceptions of place being representative or characteristic of factors that distinguish the group from others (place-prototypicality), and sense of belonging (place-identification; Studies 1a-1e; Studies 2a & 2b). Second, the studies illustrate that group representation within place shapes the way group member’s approach (i.e., expectations of group-based treatment and procedural justice; Studies 2a-2c), understand (i.e., attribution for group-based events, Study 2b; responsiveness to bias-reduction intervention, Study 4a; sense of solidarity, Study 4b), and behave (i.e., prejudice, Studies 3a & 3b; collective action, Study 4c). More broadly, I present a Social identityParadigm forContextualizedExperience (SPACE) that provides an organizing framework for the study of the impact of characteristics of place on social identity-based contextualized experience and (in turn) collective behavior. Taken together, the findings provide evidence of distinct psychological experience and orientation as a function of minority versus majority-group status within place, as well as for a group-based approach to place. Implications for the study of collective and intergroup behavior are discussed.

Non-phase-locked alpha oscillations are involved in spontaneous racial categorization of faces

Racial categorization of faces has a notable impact on human behavior, but its neural underpinnings remain unresolved. Previous electroencephalography (EEG) research focused on contributions of phase-locked neural activities to racial categorization of faces. We investigated functional roles of non-phase-locked neural oscillations in spontaneous racial categorization of faces by recording EEG from Chinese adults who performed an individuation task on Asian/White faces in Experiment 1 and on Asian/Black faces in Experiment 2. We quantified neural processes involved in spontaneous racial categorization of faces by examining repetition suppression of non-phase-locked neural oscillations when participants viewed faces of one race presented repeatedly in the same block of trials (repetition condition), or faces of two races presented alternately in the same block of trials (alternating condition). We found decreased power of alpha (9-13 Hz) oscillations in the repetition than alternating conditions at 80-240 ms over frontal-central electrodes induced by White/Black (but not Asian) faces. Moreover, larger repetition suppression of alpha oscillations in response to White/Black (vs. Asian) faces predicted greater implicit negative attitudes toward White/Black faces across individuals. Our findings suggest that non-phase-locked alpha oscillations are engaged in spontaneous racial categorization of faces and are associated with implicit negative attitudes toward other-race faces.

Racial Ingroup Bias and Efficiency Consideration Influence Distributive Decisions: A Dynamic Analysis of Time Domain and Time Frequency

Although previous studies have demonstrated that identity had effect on justice norms and behavioral decisions, the neural mechanism of that effect remains unclear. In this study, the subjects made their distributive decisions on the trade-off between equity and efficiency among Chinese and foreign children and their scalp potentials were recorded. Behavioral results showed that efficiency consideration played an important part in the distribution task. Meanwhile, participants gave preferential treatment to same-race children. Relative to the distribution within ingroup children, the distribution involving outgroup children induced higher N170 amplitude. The distribution involving outgroup children also elicited weakened P300 amplitude and enhanced delta response than the distribution within ingroup children when subjects are facing the conflict between equality and efficiency. In other words, ingroup bias affected the neural process of the trade-off between equality and efficiency. The combination of time-domain and time-frequency analyses provided spatiotemporal and spectral results for a better understanding of racial ingroup favoritism on distributive justice.

Are the current evaluation tools for advanced therapies biased?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Despite attention to racial disparities in outcomes for heart failure (HF) and other chronic diseases, progress against these inequities has been gradual at best. The disparities of COVID-19 and police brutality have highlighted the pervasiveness of systemic racism in health outcomes. Whether racial bias impacts patient access to advanced HF therapies is unclear.

RECENT FINDINGS

As documented in other settings, racial bias appears to operate in HF providers' consideration of patients for advanced therapy. Multiple medical and psychosocial elements of the evaluation process are particularly vulnerable to bias.

SUMMARY

Reducing gaps in access to advanced therapies will require commitments at multiple levels to reduce barriers to healthcare access, standardize clinical operations, research the determinants of patient success and increase diversity among providers and researchers. Progress is achievable but likely requires as disruptive and investment of immense resources as in the battle against COVID-19.

Reframing social categorization as latent structure learning for understanding political behaviour

Affiliating with political parties, voting and building coalitions all contribute to the functioning of our political systems. One core component of this is social categorization-being able to recognize others as fellow in-group members or members of the out-group. Without this capacity, we would be unable to coordinate with in-group members or avoid out-group members. Past research in social psychology and cognitive neuroscience examining social categorization has suggested that one way to identify in-group members may be to directly compute the similarity between oneself and the target (dyadic similarity). This model, however, does not account for the fact that the group membership brought to bear is context-dependent. This review argues that a more comprehensive understanding of how we build representations of social categories (and the subsequent impact on our behaviours) must first expand our conceptualization of social categorization beyond simple dyadic similarity. Furthermore, a generalizable account of social categorization must also provide domain-general, quantitative predictions for us to test hypotheses about social categorization. Here, we introduce an alternative model-one in which we infer latent groups of people through latent structure learning. We examine experimental evidence for this account and discuss potential implications for understanding the political mind. This article is part of the theme issue 'The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms'.

Exploring the Effect of Cooperation in Reducing Implicit Racial Bias and Its Relationship With Dispositional Empathy and Political Attitudes

Previous research using immersive virtual reality (VR) has shown that after a short period of embodiment by White people in a Black virtual body, their implicit racial bias against Black people diminishes. Here we tested the effects of some socio-cognitive variables that could contribute to enhancing or reducing the implicit racial bias. The first aim of the study was to assess the beneficial effects of cooperation within a VR scenario, the second aim was to provide preliminary testing of the hypothesis that empathy and political attitudes could contribute to implicit bias about race, while the third aim was to explore the relationship between political attitudes and empathy. We had (Caucasian) participants embodied in a Black virtual body and engaged either in a cooperative (Coop group) or in a non-cooperative (Neutral group) activity with a confederate experimenter embodying another Black avatar. Before and after VR, we measured participants’ implicit racial bias by means of Implicit Association Test (IAT) and their perceived closeness toward the confederate experimenter. Before VR we also assessed participants’ political attitudes and empathy traits. Results revealed that, as compared to the Neutral group, the Coop group showed lower IAT scores after the social interaction. Interestingly, in the Neutral but not the Coop group the perceived closeness toward the confederate experimenter was associated with the initial racial bias: the more the participants reduced their distance, the more they reduced their IAT score. Moreover, reported traits of empathy and political attitudes significantly explained the variance observed in the initial implicit bias, with perspective-taking, empathic concern, and personal distress being significant predictors of the IAT scores. Finally, there was a relationship between political attitudes and empathy: the more participants considered themselves as left-wing voters, the higher their perspective-taking and empathic concern scores. We discuss these findings within the neuroscientific and social cognition field and encourage scholars from different domains to further explore whether and under which conditions a given manipulation for reducing racial bias could be efficiently transposed in VR.

The Social Neuroscience of Prejudice

The social neuroscience approach to prejudice investigates the psychology of intergroup bias by integrating models and methods of neuroscience with the social psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Here, we review major contemporary lines of inquiry, including current accounts of group-based categorization; formation and updating of prejudice and stereotypes; effects of prejudice on perception, emotion, and decision making; and the self-regulation of prejudice. In each section, we discuss key social neuroscience findings, consider interpretational challenges and connections with the behavioral literature, and highlight how they advance psychological theories of prejudice. We conclude by discussing the next-generation questions that will continue to guide the social neuroscience approach toward addressing major societal issues of prejudice and discrimination.

Placebo hypoalgesia: racial differences

No large-cohort studies that examine potential racial effects on placebo hypoalgesic effects exist. To fill this void, we studied placebo effects in healthy and chronic pain participants self-identified as either African American/black (AA/black) or white. We enrolled 372 study participants, 186 with a diagnosis of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) and 186 race-, sex-, and age-matched healthy participants to participate in a placebo experiment. Using a well-established paradigm of classical conditioning with verbal suggestions, each individual pain sensitivity was measured to calibrate the temperatures for high- and low-pain stimuli in the conditioning protocol. These 2 temperatures were then paired with a red and green screen, respectively, and participants were told that the analgesic intervention would activate during the green screens to reduce pain. Participants then rated the painfulness of each stimulus on a visual analog scale ranging from 0 to 100. Racial influences were tested on conditioning strength, reinforced expectations, and placebo hypoalgesia. We found that white participants reported greater conditioning effects, reinforced relief expectations, and placebo effects when compared with their AA/black counterparts. Racial effects on placebo were observed in TMD, although negligible, short-lasting, and mediated by conditioning strength. Secondary analyses on the effect of experimenter-participant race and sex concordance indicated that same experimenter-participant race induced greater placebo hypoalgesia in TMDs while different sex induced greater placebo hypoalgesia in healthy participants. This is the first and largest study to analyze racial effects on placebo hypoalgesia and has implications for both clinical research and treatment outcomes.

Impulsivity, internalizing symptoms, and online group behavior as determinants of online hate

Online hate is widely identified as a social problem, but its social psychological dimensions are yet to be explored. We used an integrative social psychological framework for analyzing online hate offending and found that both personal risk factors and online group behavior were associated with online hate offending. Study 1, based on socio-demographically balanced survey data (N = 1200) collected from Finnish adolescents and young adults, found that impulsivity and internalizing symptoms were positively associated with online hate offending. Furthermore, social homophily was positively associated with online hate offending but only among those with average or high level of internalizing symptoms. Social identification with online communities was not associated with hate offending. In Study 2, based on a vignette experiment (N = 160), online hate offenders were more likely than others to rely on in-group stereotypes (i.e. self-stereotype) in anonymous online interaction and, as a consequence, follow perceived group norms. These associations were found only when a shared group identity was primed. We conclude that both personal risk factors and group behavior are related to online hate but they have different implications for reducing hateful communication in social media.

The neural mechanisms of threat and reconciliation efforts between Muslims and non-Muslims

To reduce the escalation of intergroup conflict, it is important that we understand the processes related to the detection of group-based threat and reconciliation. In the present study, we investigated the neural mechanisms of such processes using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Functional neuroimaging techniques may shed light on quick, automatic responses to stimuli that happen outside of conscious awareness and are thus increasingly difficult to quantify relying only on participants' self-reported experiences. They may further provide invaluable insight into physiological processes occurring in situations of sensitive nature, whereby participants-deliberately or not-may withhold their honest responses due to social desirability. Non-Muslim Western Caucasian participants watched short video clips of stereotypical Middle-Eastern Muslim males threatening their ingroup, offering reconciliation to the ingroup, or making a neutral statement. Threatening statements led to increased activation in the amygdala, insula, supramarginal gyrus, and temporal lobe. Reconciliation efforts led to increased activation in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, and caudate. The results suggest that threat detection is a relatively automatic process while evaluating and responding to reconciliation offers requires more cognitive efforts. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Acute stress reduces out-group related safety signaling during fear reinstatement in women

When using in-group and out-group faces as conditional stimuli (CS) in fear conditioning designs, extinction learning is selectively impaired for out-group faces. Additionally, stress seems to inhibit extinction retrieval leading to a higher return of fear, which might be especially the case for out-group faces. To test this hypothesis, 51 healthy women underwent fear acquisition training, consisting of repeated presentations of two in-group and two out-group faces. One of each (CS+) was paired with an electrical stimulation (unconditional stimulus, UCS), whereas the other was not coupled with the UCS (CS-). During immediate extinction training, all CS were presented again. On the next day, a retrieval and reinstatement test took place after a stress or a control procedure. Confirming previous research, impaired extinction learning occurred for out-group relative to in-group faces. During the reinstatement test, stress specifically increased responding towards the out-group CS-, thus reducing its safety signaling properties. So, stress seems to reduce the ability to adequately distinguish threat and safety cues after aversive experiences mimicked by reinstatement shocks.