1
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Jimenez AM, Green MF. Disturbance at the self-other boundary in schizophrenia: Linking phenomenology to clinical neuroscience. Schizophr Res 2024; 272:51-60. [PMID: 39190982 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2024.07.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2024] [Revised: 07/21/2024] [Accepted: 07/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/29/2024]
Abstract
In this selective review, we describe the current neuroscientific literature on disturbances of the self-other boundary in schizophrenia as they relate to structural and experiential aspects of the self. Within these two broad categories, the structural self includes body ownership and agency, and the experiential self includes self-reflection, source monitoring, and self-referential and autobiographical memory. Further, we consider how disturbances in these domains link to the phenomenology of schizophrenia. We identify faulty internal predictive coding as a potential mechanism of disturbance in body ownership and agency, which results in susceptibility to bias (over- or under-attributing outcomes to one's own actions or intentions). This is reflected in reduced activity in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), a heteromodal association area implicated in several aspects of self-other processing, as well as reduced fronto-parietal functional connectivity. Deficits of the experiential self in schizophrenia may stem from a lack of salience of self-related information, whereby the mental representation of self is not as rich as in healthy controls and therefore does not result in the same level of privileged processing. As a result, memory for self-referential material and autobiographical memory processes is impaired, which hinders creation of a cohesive life narrative. Impairments of the experiential self implicate abnormal activation patterns along the cortical midline, including medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate/precuneus, as well as TPJ. In fact, TPJ appears to be involved in all the reviewed aspects of the self-other disturbance. We conclude with suggestions for future work, including implications for interventions with critical timing considerations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy M Jimenez
- Department of Veterans Affairs, Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, USA; VA Rehabilitation R&D Center on Enhancing Community Integration for Homeless Veterans, USA; Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, USA.
| | - Michael F Green
- Department of Veterans Affairs, Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, USA; VA Rehabilitation R&D Center on Enhancing Community Integration for Homeless Veterans, USA; Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, USA
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2
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Yang Y, Wang C, Shi J, Zou Z. Joyful Growth vs. Compulsive Hedonism: A Meta-Analysis of Brain Activation on Romantic Love and Addictive Disorders. Neuropsychologia 2024:109003. [PMID: 39293637 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.109003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2023] [Revised: 09/05/2024] [Accepted: 09/15/2024] [Indexed: 09/20/2024]
Abstract
Due to the similarities in behavioral characteristics between romantic love and addictive disorders, the concept of being "addicted to someone" transcends mere literary metaphor, expanding perspectives on the study of romantic love and inspiring interventions for addiction. However, there has been a lack of studies systematically exploring the similarities and differences between romantic love and addiction at the neural level. In this study, we conducted an extensive literature search, incorporating 21 studies on romantic love and 28 on addictive disorders, focusing on fMRI research utilizing the cue reactivity paradigm. Using Activation Likelihood Estimation, we examined the similarities and differences in the neural mechanisms underlying love and addiction. The results showed that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) exhibited both shared and distinct activation clusters between romantic love and addictive disorders. Furthermore, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) was more frequently activated in romantic love than in addictive disorders, while greater activation within the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) was found in addictive disorder compared with romantic love. We discussed that the activation of ACC and VMPFC may symbolize self-expansion, a process that characterizes the development of romantic love, contributing to a more enriched self. Our study suggests that while romantic love and addictive disorders share a common neural foundation, the discernible differences in their neural representations distinguish them as joyful growth versus compulsive hedonism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuhang Yang
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China; Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Chongqing, China
| | - Chuan Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Jiannong Shi
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Zhiling Zou
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China; Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Chongqing, China.
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3
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Yoo DY, Jeong DW, Kim MK, Kwak S. Borderline personality trait is associated with neural differentiation of self-other processing: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2024; 345:111882. [PMID: 39243479 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2024.111882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2024] [Revised: 08/18/2024] [Accepted: 08/26/2024] [Indexed: 09/09/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Individuals with borderline personality traits are known to have disturbed representations of self and others. Specifically, an unstable self-identity and difficulties distinguishing between self and others can impair their mentalizing abilities in interpersonal situations. However, it is unclear whether these traits are linked to differences in neural representation of self and others. METHODS In this study involving 156 young adults, changes in neural function during self-other processing were measured using a Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) task and a self-report survey. During the fNIRS task, participants were asked about their own traits, others' traits, how they believed others perceived them, and the basic meaning of words. The study aimed to determine whether the degree of neural differentiation between the task conditions was related to borderline personality traits. RESULT The study found that traits indicative of identity instability could be predicted by similarities in task-dependent connectivity. Specifically, the neural patterns when individuals estimated how others perceived them were more similar to the patterns when they judged their own traits. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that borderline personality traits related to identity issues may reflect difficulties in distinguishing between neural patterns when processing self and other information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Do Yeon Yoo
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea
| | - Da Won Jeong
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea
| | - Min Kyoung Kim
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea
| | - Seyul Kwak
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea.
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4
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Kwak S, Kwon J. General and distinct correspondence between personality disorder and interpersonal functioning. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2024; 249:104454. [PMID: 39153317 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2024] [Revised: 06/27/2024] [Accepted: 08/06/2024] [Indexed: 08/19/2024] Open
Abstract
The alternative model of personality disorders (AMPD) in DSM-5 includes interpersonal dysfunction as a core construct as a global severity dimension. However, it is less known how various interpersonal characteristics contribute to both general and distinct dimensions of personality dysfunction. In participants from community sources, we obtained responses to Levels of Personality Functioning Scale-Self Report (LPFS-SR), maladaptive traits (PID-5-BF), and social relationship patterns, including those related to close relationships and quantitative measures of network size. Canonical correlation analysis mapped conjoint associations between two sets of variables (personality scales and social relationship) and identified three distinct modes of correlation as significant. The first canonical pattern represented global dysfunction and was associated with utilitarianism, short-termed, weaker strengths, and smaller network sizes. The second canonical correlation represented externalizing traits and was associated with a larger number of relationships, higher utilitarianism, and short-term relationships with a close significant other. The third canonical correlation represented a detached, unemotional, and callous personality which corresponded with weaker relationship strength with both the mother and a close significant other. Our findings suggest that interpersonal functioning corresponding to personality dysfunction can be distinguished into both common and specific characteristics and further highlight the importance of characterizing distinct patterns within close relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seyul Kwak
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea.
| | - Jieun Kwon
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
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5
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Cattarinussi G, Meda N, Miola A, Sambataro F. The functional connectivity of the right superior temporal gyrus is associated with psychological risk and resilience factors for suicidality. J Affect Disord 2024; 357:51-59. [PMID: 38653349 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.04.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 04/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Suicide attempters show increased activation in the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG). Here, we investigated the rSTG functional connectivity (FC) to identify a functional network involved in suicidality and its associations with psychological suicidality risk and resilience factors. METHODS The resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 151 healthy individuals from the Human Connectome Project Young Adult database were used to explore the FC of the rSTG with itself and with the rest of the brain. The correlation between the rSTG FC and loneliness and purpose in life scores was assessed with the NIH Toolbox. The effect of sex was also investigated. RESULTS The rSTG had a positive FC with bilateral cortical and subcortical regions, including frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital, limbic, and cerebellar regions, and a negative FC with the medulla oblongata. The FC of the rSTG with itself and with the left central operculum were associated with loneliness scores. The within rSTG FC was also negatively correlated with purpose in life scores, although at a trend level. We did not find any effect of sex on FC and its associations with psychological factors. LIMITATIONS The cross-sectional design, the limited age range, and the lack of measures of suicidality limit the generalizability of our findings. CONCLUSIONS The rSTG functional network is associated with loneliness and purpose in life. Together with the existing literature on suicide, this supports the idea that the neural activity of rSTG may contribute to suicidality by modulating risk and resilience factors associated with suicidality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Cattarinussi
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padua, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Nicola Meda
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padua, Italy; Padova University Hospital, Padua, Italy
| | - Alessandro Miola
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padua, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy; Casa di Cura Parco dei Tigli, Padova, Italy
| | - Fabio Sambataro
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padua, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy; Padova University Hospital, Padua, Italy.
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6
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Brietzke SC, Barbarossa K, Meyer ML. Get out of my head: social evaluative brain states carry over into post-feedback rest and influence remembering how others view us. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae280. [PMID: 39010819 PMCID: PMC11250231 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2024] [Accepted: 06/23/2024] [Indexed: 07/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Learning how others perceive us helps us tune our behavior to form adaptive relationships. But which perceptions stick with us? And when in the learning process are they codified in memory? We leveraged a popular television series-The Office-to answer these questions. Prior to their functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, viewers of The Office reported which characters they identified with, as well as which characters they perceived another person (i.e. counterpart) was similar to. During their fMRI scan, participants found out which characters other people thought they and the counterpart were like, and also completed rest scans. Participants remembered more feedback inconsistent with their self-views (vs. views of the counterpart). Although neural activity while encoding self-inconsistent feedback did not meaningfully predict memory, returning to the inconsistent self feedback during subsequent rest did. During rest, participants reinstated neural patterns engaged while receiving self-inconsistent feedback in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC). DMPFC reinstatement also quadratically predicted self-inconsistent memory, with too few or too many reinstatements compromising memory performance. Processing social feedback during rest may impact how we remember and integrate the feedback, especially when it contradicts our self-views.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sasha C Brietzke
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Klara Barbarossa
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, United States
| | - Meghan L Meyer
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
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7
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Broom TW, Iyer S, Courtney AL, Meyer ML. Loneliness corresponds with neural representations and language use that deviate from shared cultural perceptions. COMMUNICATIONS PSYCHOLOGY 2024; 2:40. [PMID: 38721125 PMCID: PMC11073992 DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00088-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 09/01/2024]
Abstract
The word zeitgeist refers to common perceptions shared in a given culture. Meanwhile, a defining feature of loneliness is feeling that one's views are not shared with others. Does loneliness correspond with deviating from the zeitgeist? Across two independent brain imaging datasets, lonely participants' neural representations of well-known celebrities strayed from group-consensus neural representations in the medial prefrontal cortex-a region that encodes and retrieves social knowledge (Studies 1 A/1B: N = 40 each). Because communication fosters social connection by creating shared reality, we next asked whether lonelier participants' communication about well-known celebrities also deviates from the zeitgeist. Indeed, when a strong group consensus exists, lonelier individuals use idiosyncratic language to describe well-known celebrities (Study 2: N = 923). Collectively, results support lonely individuals' feeling that their views are not shared. This suggests loneliness may not only reflect impoverished relationships with specific individuals, but also feelings of disconnection from prevalently shared views of contemporary culture.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Siddhant Iyer
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY USA
| | | | - Meghan L. Meyer
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY USA
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8
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Kim HE, Eom H, Jo HJ, Kim MK, Kim J, Kim JJ. Neural substrates of marriage on self-parents processing and the association with a parents-oriented perspective shift in a collectivistic culture. Biol Psychol 2024; 187:108768. [PMID: 38432426 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2023] [Revised: 02/25/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
Relationship with parents is a special bond that shapes self-other representations and have an impact on adult-child's marriage, especially in the early stages of marriage. This study sought to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying self-parents processing as well as their relationship with marriage. Seventy-eight premarital Korean participants were scanned in functional MRI while evaluating traits of the self and parents. Then, 21 of them returned after being married to engage in the identical task three years later. The precuneus and temporoparietal junction were identified to activate stronger for parents than self at both marital statuses. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, parietal operculum, and caudate activated more for self than parents before marriage, but their activities changed during marriage. The activation increase of the parietal operculum between marital statuses in the parents condition was negatively correlated with the level of marital dissatisfaction, and this association only appeared among participants with a child. Self-parents processing may recruit brain regions involved in autobiographical memory and self-other distinction, and marriage has an impact on the way individuals process rewards and multimodal sensory information during this processing. Marriage may lead to changes in brain function that affect the processing of emotions toward parents and a more parents-oriented perspective shift in collectivistic societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hesun Erin Kim
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyojung Eom
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hye-Jeong Jo
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Min-Kyeong Kim
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Junhyung Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Guro Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae-Jin Kim
- Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Psychiatry, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
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9
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Shamay-Tsoory SG, Kanterman A. Away from the herd: loneliness as a dysfunction of social alignment. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae005. [PMID: 38287695 PMCID: PMC10873844 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024] Open
Abstract
The tendency of all humans to experience loneliness at some point in their lives implies that it serves an adaptive function. Building on biological theories of herding in animals, according to which collective movement emerges from local interactions that are based on principles of attraction, repulsion and alignment, we propose an approach that synthesizes these principles with theories of loneliness in humans. We present here the 'herding model of loneliness' that extends these principles into the psychological domain. We hold that these principles serve as basic building blocks of human interactions and propose that distorted attraction and repulsion tendencies may lead to inability to align properly with others, which may be a core component in loneliness emergence and perpetuation. We describe a neural model of herding in humans and suggest that loneliness may be associated with altered interactions between the gap/error detection, reward signaling, threat and observation-execution systems. The proposed model offers a framework to predict the behavior of lonely individuals and thus may inform intervention designs for reducing loneliness intensity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alisa Kanterman
- Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
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10
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Rubin SS, Manevich A, Yehene E. Continuing Bonds in Marriage, Death and Divorce: Conceptual and Clinical Considerations in the Relationship to Self and Spouse. OMEGA-JOURNAL OF DEATH AND DYING 2024:302228241226471. [PMID: 38226449 DOI: 10.1177/00302228241226471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2024]
Abstract
The shift from the detachment model of mourning to the continuing bonds paradigm in bereavement placed relationships to the deceased alongside relationships to the living. This emphasis on the continuation of the connection to the other person after death paradoxically narrowed the gap between relationships in life and after death. We explore and expand the concept of continuing bonds as it is now used in the field of loss and bereavement by comparing spousal relationships in the living, deceased and divorced. The Two-Track Model of Loss and Bereavement is a framework and clinical paradigm that clarifies similarities and differences in these three pair-bond relationships. The focus on continuing bonds adds and deepens theory, clinical and research aspects of assessing spousal relationship for the living as well as the bereaved and divorced.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Shimshon Rubin
- International Laboratory for the Study of Loss, Bereavement and Human Resilience, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- Department of Psychology, Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Jezreel Valley, Israel
| | - Alexander Manevich
- Department of Psychology and Department of Behavioral Sciences, Kinneret Academic College and International Laboratory for the Study of Loss, Bereavement and Human Resilience and the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Einat Yehene
- School of Behavioral Sciences, The Academic College to Tel Aviv - Yaffo, Tel Aviv, Israel
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11
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Knyazev GG, Savostyanov AN, Bocharov AV, Saprigyn AE. Representational similarity analysis of self- versus other-processing: Effect of trait aggressiveness. Aggress Behav 2024; 50:e22125. [PMID: 38268387 DOI: 10.1002/ab.22125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
In this study, using the self/other adjective judgment task, we aimed to explore how people perceive themselves in comparison to various other people, including friends, strangers, and those they dislike. Next, using representational similarity analysis, we sought to elucidate how these perceptual similarities and differences are represented in brain activity and how aggressiveness is related to these representations. Behavioral ratings show that, on average, people tend to consider themselves more like their friends than neutral strangers, and least like people they dislike. This pattern of similarity is positively correlated with neural representation in social and cognitive circuits of the brain and negatively correlated with neural representation in emotional centers that may represent emotional arousal associated with various social objects. Aggressiveness seems to predispose a person to a pattern of behavior that is the opposite of the average pattern, that is, a tendency to think of oneself as less like one's friends and more like one's enemies. This corresponds to an increase in the similarity of the behavioral representation with the representation in the emotional centers and a decrease in its similarity with the representation in the social and cognitive centers. This can be seen as evidence that in individuals prone to aggression, behavior in the social environment may depend to a greater extent on the representation of social objects in the emotional rather than social and cognitive brain circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gennady G Knyazev
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexander N Savostyanov
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
- Laboratory of Psychological Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Andrey V Bocharov
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexander E Saprigyn
- Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
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12
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Delgado MR, Fareri DS, Chang LJ. Characterizing the mechanisms of social connection. Neuron 2023; 111:3911-3925. [PMID: 37804834 PMCID: PMC10842352 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how individuals form and maintain strong social networks has emerged as a significant public health priority as a result of the increased focus on the epidemic of loneliness and the myriad protective benefits conferred by social connection. In this review, we highlight the psychological and neural mechanisms that enable us to connect with others, which in turn help buffer against the consequences of stress and isolation. Central to this process is the experience of rewards derived from positive social interactions, which encourage the sharing of perspectives and preferences that unite individuals. Sharing affective states with others helps us to align our understanding of the world with another's, thereby continuing to reinforce bonds and strengthen relationships. These psychological processes depend on neural systems supporting reward and social cognitive function. Lastly, we also consider limitations associated with pursuing healthy social connections and outline potential avenues of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauricio R Delgado
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
| | - Dominic S Fareri
- Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, USA
| | - Luke J Chang
- Consortium for Interacting Minds, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
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13
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Zanchi P, Ledoux JB, Fornari E, Denervaud S. Me, Myself, and I: Neural Activity for Self versus Other across Development. CHILDREN (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 10:1914. [PMID: 38136116 PMCID: PMC10742061 DOI: 10.3390/children10121914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023]
Abstract
Although adults and children differ in self-vs.-other perception, a developmental perspective on this discriminative ability at the brain level is missing. This study examined neural activation for self-vs.-other in a sample of 39 participants spanning four different age groups, from 4-year-olds to adults. Self-related stimuli elicited higher neural activity within two brain regions related to self-referential thinking, empathy, and social cognition processes. Second, stimuli related to 'others' (i.e., unknown peer) elicited activation within nine additional brain regions. These regions are associated with multisensory processing, somatosensory skills, language, complex visual stimuli, self-awareness, empathy, theory of mind, and social recognition. Overall, activation maps were gradually increasing with age. However, patterns of activity were non-linear within the medial cingulate cortex for 'self' stimuli and within the left middle temporal gyrus for 'other' stimuli in 7-10-year-old participants. In both cases, there were no self-vs.-other differences. It suggests a critical period where the perception of self and others are similarly processed. Furthermore, 11-19-year-old participants showed no differences between others and self within the left inferior orbital gyrus, suggesting less distinction between self and others in social learning. Understanding the neural bases of self-vs.-other discrimination during development can offer valuable insights into how social contexts can influence learning processes during development, such as when to introduce peer-to-peer teaching or group learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Zanchi
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jean-Baptiste Ledoux
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
- CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Eleonora Fornari
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
- CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Solange Denervaud
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
- CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- MRI Animal Imaging and Technology, Polytechnical School of Lausanne, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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14
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Broom TW, Wagner DD. The boundary between real and fictional others in the medial prefrontal cortex is blurred in lonelier individuals. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9677-9689. [PMID: 37401007 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023] Open
Abstract
People spend much of their free time engaging with narrative fiction. Research shows that, like real-life friends, fictional characters can sometimes influence individuals' attitudes, behaviors, and self-beliefs. Moreover, for certain individuals, fictional characters can stand in for real-life friends by providing the experience of belonging. Despite these parallels between how people think of real and fictional others, it is unclear whether, and to what degree, their neural representations are similar. Does the brain treat psychologically close fictional others as it does close real-world friends, or are real others somehow privileged in their neural representation? In the present study, fans of the HBO series Game of Thrones performed a trait-evaluation task for the self, 9 real-life friends/acquaintances, and 9 fictional characters from Game of Thrones while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Using both brain decoding and representational similarity analysis, we found evidence of a categorical boundary between real and fictional others within the medial prefrontal cortex. However, the boundary between these categories was blurred in lonelier individuals. These results suggest that lonelier individuals may turn to fictional characters to meet belongingness needs, and this, in turn, alters the manner in which these categories are encoded within the social brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy W Broom
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, United States
| | - Dylan D Wagner
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, United States
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15
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Faraji J, Metz GAS. Toward reframing brain-social dynamics: current assumptions and future challenges. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1211442. [PMID: 37484686 PMCID: PMC10359502 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1211442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary analyses suggest that the human social brain and sociality appeared together. The two fundamental tools that accelerated the concurrent emergence of the social brain and sociality include learning and plasticity. The prevailing core idea is that the primate brain and the cortex in particular became reorganised over the course of evolution to facilitate dynamic adaptation to ongoing changes in physical and social environments. Encouraged by computational or survival demands or even by instinctual drives for living in social groups, the brain eventually learned how to learn from social experience via its massive plastic capacity. A fundamental framework for modeling these orchestrated dynamic responses is that social plasticity relies upon neuroplasticity. In the present article, we first provide a glimpse into the concepts of plasticity, experience, with emphasis on social experience. We then acknowledge and integrate the current theoretical concepts to highlight five key intertwined assumptions within social neuroscience that underlie empirical approaches for explaining the brain-social dynamics. We suggest that this epistemological view provides key insights into the ontology of current conceptual frameworks driving future research to successfully deal with new challenges and possible caveats in favour of the formulation of novel assumptions. In the light of contemporary societal challenges, such as global pandemics, natural disasters, violent conflict, and other human tragedies, discovering the mechanisms of social brain plasticity will provide new approaches to support adaptive brain plasticity and social resilience.
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16
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Welborn BL, Dieffenbach MC, Lieberman MD. Default egocentrism: an MVPA approach to overlap in own and others' socio-political attitudes. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:nsad028. [PMID: 37338858 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsad028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2022] [Revised: 02/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the socio-political attitudes of other people is a crucial skill, yet the neural mechanisms supporting this capacity remain understudied. This study used multivariate pattern analysis to examine patterns of activity in the default mode network (DMN) while participants assessed their own attitudes and the attitudes of other people. Classification analyses indicated that common patterns in DMN regions encode both own and others' support across a variety of contemporary socio-political issues. Moreover, cross-classification analyses demonstrated that a common coding of attitudes is implemented at a neural level. This shared informational content was associated with a greater perceived overlap between own attitude positions and those of others (i.e. attitudinal projection), such that higher cross-classification accuracy corresponded with greater attitudinal projection. This study thus identifies a possible neural basis for egocentric biases in the social perception of individual and group attitudes and provides additional evidence for self/other overlap in mentalizing.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Matthew D Lieberman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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17
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Baek EC, Hyon R, López K, Du M, Porter MA, Parkinson C. Lonely Individuals Process the World in Idiosyncratic Ways. Psychol Sci 2023; 34:683-695. [PMID: 37027033 PMCID: PMC10404901 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221145316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 04/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Loneliness is detrimental to well-being and is often accompanied by self-reported feelings of not being understood by other people. What contributes to such feelings in lonely people? We used functional MRI of 66 first-year university students to unobtrusively measure the relative alignment of people's mental processing of naturalistic stimuli and tested whether lonely people actually process the world in idiosyncratic ways. We found evidence for such idiosyncrasy: Lonely individuals' neural responses were dissimilar to those of their peers, particularly in regions of the default-mode network in which similar responses have been associated with shared perspectives and subjective understanding. These relationships persisted when we controlled for demographic similarities, objective social isolation, and individuals' friendships with each other. Our findings raise the possibility that being surrounded by people who see the world differently from oneself, even if one is friends with them, may be a risk factor for loneliness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa C. Baek
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Ryan Hyon
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Karina López
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Meng Du
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Mason A. Porter
- Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles
- Santa Fe Institute
| | - Carolyn Parkinson
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
- Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles
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18
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Chiou R, Cox CR, Lambon Ralph MA. Bipartite functional fractionation within the neural system for social cognition supports the psychological continuity of self versus other. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:1277-1299. [PMID: 35394005 PMCID: PMC9930627 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Revised: 02/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Research of social neuroscience establishes that regions in the brain's default-mode network (DN) and semantic network (SN) are engaged by socio-cognitive tasks. Research of the human connectome shows that DN and SN regions are both situated at the transmodal end of a cortical gradient but differ in their loci along this gradient. Here we integrated these 2 bodies of research, used the psychological continuity of self versus other as a "test-case," and used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether these 2 networks would encode social concepts differently. We found a robust dissociation between the DN and SN-while both networks contained sufficient information for decoding broad-stroke distinction of social categories, the DN carried more generalizable information for cross-classifying across social distance and emotive valence than did the SN. We also found that the overarching distinction of self versus other was a principal divider of the representational space while social distance was an auxiliary factor (subdivision, nested within the principal dimension), and this representational landscape was more manifested in the DN than in the SN. Taken together, our findings demonstrate how insights from connectome research can benefit social neuroscience and have implications for clarifying the 2 networks' differential contributions to social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christopher R Cox
- Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, LA 70803, Baton Rouge, United States
| | - Matthew A Lambon Ralph
- MRC Cognition & Brain Science Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
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19
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Kim MJ, Sul S. On the relationship between the social brain, social connectedness, and wellbeing. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1112438. [PMID: 36911115 PMCID: PMC9998496 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1112438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2023] [Indexed: 02/26/2023] Open
Abstract
The emergence of social neuroscience in the past two decades has offered a useful neurocognitive framework for understanding human social behavior. Of importance, social neuroscience research aimed to provide mechanistic explanations for the established link between wellbeing and social behavioral phenomena-particularly those reflective of social connectedness. Here, we provide an overview of the relevant literature focusing on recent work using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In general, fMRI research demonstrated that aspects of social connectedness that are known to either positively (e.g., social acceptance) or negatively (e.g., social isolation) impact wellbeing also modulated the activity of subcortical reward system accordingly. Similar modulatory influence was found for the activity of other brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex, which are typically regarded as components of the "social brain" that support a wide range of functions related to social cognition and behavior. Elucidating such individual differences in brain activity may shed light onto the neural underpinnings of the link between social connectedness and wellbeing.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Justin Kim
- Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.,Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, Republic of Korea
| | - Sunhae Sul
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
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20
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Hendrikse SC, Kluiver S, Treur J, Wilderjans TF, Dikker S, Koole SL. How Virtual Agents Can Learn to Synchronize: an Adaptive Joint Decision-Making Model of Psychotherapy. COGN SYST RES 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2022.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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21
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Hofmans L, van den Bos W. Social learning across adolescence: A Bayesian neurocognitive perspective. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2022; 58:101151. [PMID: 36183664 PMCID: PMC9526184 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of social re-orientation in which we are generally more prone to peer influence and the updating of our beliefs based on social information, also called social learning, than in any other stage of our life. However, how do we know when to use social information and whose information to use and how does this ability develop across adolescence? Here, we review the social learning literature from a behavioral, neural and computational viewpoint, focusing on the development of brain systems related to executive functioning, value-based decision-making and social cognition. We put forward a Bayesian reinforcement learning framework that incorporates social learning about value associated with particular behavior and uncertainty in our environment and experiences. We discuss how this framework can inform us about developmental changes in social learning, including how the assessment of uncertainty and the ability to adaptively discriminate between information from different social sources change across adolescence. By combining reward-based decision-making in the domains of both informational and normative influence, this framework explains both negative and positive social peer influence in adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lieke Hofmans
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Correspondence to: Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, room G1.05, 1018WS Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Wouter van den Bos
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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22
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Depow GJ, Lin H, Inzlicht M. Cognitive effort for self, strangers, and charities. Sci Rep 2022; 12:15009. [PMID: 36056071 PMCID: PMC9440104 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19163-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Effort is aversive and often avoided, even when earning benefits for oneself. Yet, people sometimes work hard for others. How do people decide who is worth their effort? Prior work shows people avoid physical effort for strangers relative to themselves, but invest more physical effort for charity. Here, we find that people avoid cognitive effort for others relative to themselves, even when the cause is a personally meaningful charity. In two studies, participants repeatedly decided whether to invest cognitive effort to gain financial rewards for themselves and others. In Study 1, participants (N = 51; 150 choices) were less willing to invest cognitive effort for a charity than themselves. In Study 2, participants (N = 47; 225 choices) were more willing to work cognitively for a charity than an intragroup stranger, but again preferred cognitive exertion that benefited themselves. Computational modeling suggests that, unlike prior physical effort findings, cognitive effort discounted the subjective value of rewards linearly. Exploratory machine learning analyses suggest that people who represented others more similarly to themselves were more willing to invest effort on their behalf, opening up new avenues for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory J Depow
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.
| | - Hause Lin
- Hill/Levene Schools of Business, University of Regina, Regina, Canada
- Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
| | - Michael Inzlicht
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada
- Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
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23
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Padilla-Coreano N, Tye KM, Zelikowsky M. Dynamic influences on the neural encoding of social valence. Nat Rev Neurosci 2022; 23:535-550. [PMID: 35831442 PMCID: PMC9997616 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-022-00609-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Social signals can serve as potent emotional triggers with powerful impacts on processes from cognition to valence processing. How are social signals dynamically and flexibly associated with positive or negative valence? How do our past social experiences and present social standing shape our motivation to seek or avoid social contact? We discuss a model in which social attributes, social history, social memory, social rank and social isolation can flexibly influence valence assignment to social stimuli, termed here as 'social valence'. We emphasize how the brain encodes each of these four factors and highlight the neural circuits and mechanisms that play a part in the perception of social attributes, social memory and social rank, as well as how these factors affect valence systems associated with social stimuli. We highlight the impact of social isolation, dissecting the neural and behavioural mechanisms that mediate the effects of acute versus prolonged periods of social isolation. Importantly, we discuss conceptual models that may account for the potential shift in valence of social stimuli from positive to negative as the period of isolation extends in time. Collectively, this Review identifies factors that control the formation and attribution of social valence - integrating diverse areas of research and emphasizing their unique contributions to the categorization of social stimuli as positive or negative.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nancy Padilla-Coreano
- Department of Neuroscience, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Kay M Tye
- HHMI-Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
| | - Moriel Zelikowsky
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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24
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Wong NML, Mabel-Kenzie STST, Lin C, Huang CM, Liu HL, Lee SH, Lee TMC. Meta-analytic evidence for the cognitive control model of loneliness in emotion processing. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 138:104686. [PMID: 35537565 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Revised: 03/15/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Loneliness is strongly related to affective dysregulation. However, the neuropsychological mechanisms underpinning the loneliness-affective processing relationships remain unclear. Here, we first utilised the coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation method to confirm functional clusters related to loneliness, including the striatum, superior and medial frontal gyrus, insula, and cuneus. Meta-analytic connectivity modelling was then performed to characterise the functional connectivity of these clusters across studies using emotion tasks. Our results revealed that these clusters co-activated with the cognitive control networks. From the literature, we understand that loneliness and its neural correlates are highly related to regulating the attention biases to social rewards and social cues. Therefore, our findings provide a proof-of-concept that loneliness up-regulates the cognitive control networks to process socio-affective information. Prolonged up-regulation thus exhausts cognitive resources and hence, affective dysregulation. This study offers insight into the intricate role of cognitive and affective regulation in loneliness and social perception and provides meta-analytic evidence of the cognitive control model of loneliness and loneliness-related affective dysregulation, bringing significant clinical implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nichol M L Wong
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
| | - Sammi T S T Mabel-Kenzie
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Human Neuroscience, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Chemin Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan; College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan; Community Medicine Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Mao Huang
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Ho-Ling Liu
- Department of Imaging Physics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Shwu-Hua Lee
- College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan County, Taiwan.
| | - Tatia M C Lee
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Human Neuroscience, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Institute of Clinical Neuropsychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
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25
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Chien JH, Hung IT, Goh JOS, Kuo LW, Chang WW. Personal socio-cultural preferences modulate neural correlates of decisions to socialize with powerful persons. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 43:4422-4432. [PMID: 35665565 PMCID: PMC9435004 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Social power differences fundamentally shape the behavioral interaction dynamics of groups and societies. While it has long been recognized that individual socio‐cultural preferences mitigate social interactions involving persons of power, there is limited empirical data on the underlying neural correlates. To bridge this gap, we asked university student participants to decide whether they were willing to engage in social activities involving their teachers (higher power status), classmates (equal power status), or themselves (control) while functional brain images were acquired. Questionnaires assessed participants' preferences for power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and cultural intelligence. As expected, participants generally accepted more social interactions with classmates than teachers. Also, left inferior frontal activity was higher when accepting than when rejecting social interactions with teachers. Critically, power distance preferences further modulated right lateral frontoparietal activity contrasting approach relative to avoidance decisions towards teachers. In addition, uncertainty avoidance modulated activity in medial frontal, precuneus, and left supramarginal areas distinguishing approach decisions towards teachers relative to classmates. Cultural intelligence modulated neural responses to classmate approach/avoidance decisions in anterior cingulate and left parietal areas. Overall, functional activities in distinct brain networks reflected different personal socio‐cultural preferences despite observed social decisions to interact with others of differential power status. Such findings highlight that social approach or avoidance behaviors towards powerful persons involves differential subjective neural processes possibly involved in computing implicit social utility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jui-Hong Chien
- Graduate Institute of International Human Resource Development, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - I-Tzu Hung
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Joshua Oon Soo Goh
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Li-Wei Kuo
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.,Institute of Medical Device and Imaging, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wei-Wen Chang
- Graduate Institute of International Human Resource Development, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
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26
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Nijhof AD, von Trott zu Solz J, Catmur C, Bird G. Equivalent own name bias in autism: An EEG study of the Attentional Blink. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:625-639. [PMID: 34762235 PMCID: PMC9090867 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00967-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The "Attentional Blink" refers to difficulty in detecting the second of two target stimuli presented in rapid temporal succession. Studies have shown that salient target stimuli, such as one's own name, reduce the magnitude of this effect. Given indications that self-related processing is altered in autism, it is an open question whether this attentional self-bias is reduced in autism. To investigate this, in the current study we utilised an Attentional Blink paradigm involving one's own and others' names, in a group of 24 autistic adults, and 22 neurotypical adults, while measuring EEG. In line with previous studies, the Attentional Blink was reduced when the participant's own name was the second target, with no differences between autistic and neurotypical participants. ERP results show that the effect on the Attentional Blink of one's own name was reflected in increased N2 and P3 amplitudes, for both autistic and nonautistic individuals. This is the first event-related potential study of own-name processing in the context of the Attentional Blink. The results provide evidence of an intact attentional self-bias in autism, both at the behavioural and neural level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annabel D. Nijhof
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF UK
| | - Jana von Trott zu Solz
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF UK
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Goethestrasse 31/I, 80336 Munich, Germany
| | - Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF UK
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF UK
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG UK
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27
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Morese R, Longobardi C. The Impact of Physical Distancing in the Pandemic Situation: Considering the Role of Loneliness and Social Brain. Front Psychol 2022; 13:861329. [PMID: 35386900 PMCID: PMC8978441 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.861329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The new normal has made social distancing a new way of experiencing sociality. Social neuroscience has for a long time been concerned with studying the beneficial effects of social relationships, of physical contact. It is known that physical contact activates neurophysiological processes that reduce the perception of discomfort and even physical pain. So in the absence of physical contact, our social brain may be modulated differently when we are with others. But what could be the long-term effects of this normality? This mini-review focuses on highlighting with the support of social neuroscience evidence such as isolation, distancing can affect people’s health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosalba Morese
- Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.,Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
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28
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Parelman JM, Doré BP, Cooper N, O’Donnell MB, Chan HY, Falk EB. Overlapping Functional Representations of Self- and Other-Related Thought are Separable Through Multivoxel Pattern Classification. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:1131-1141. [PMID: 34398230 PMCID: PMC8924429 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Revised: 07/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-reflection and thinking about the thoughts and behaviors of others are important skills for humans to function in the social world. These two processes overlap in terms of the component processes involved, and share overlapping functional organizations within the human brain, in particular within the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Several functional models have been proposed to explain these two processes, but none has directly explored the extent to which they are distinctly represented within different parts of the brain. This study used multivoxel pattern classification to quantify the separability of self- and other-related thought in the MPFC and expanded this question to the entire brain. Using a large-scale mega-analytic dataset, spanning three separate studies (n = 142), we find that self- and other-related thought can be reliably distinguished above chance within the MPFC, posterior cingulate cortex and temporal lobes. We highlight subcomponents of the ventral MPFC that are particularly important in representing self-related thought, and subcomponents of the orbitofrontal cortex robustly involved in representing other-related thought. Our findings indicate that representations of self- and other-related thought in the human brain are described best by a distributed pattern rather than stark localization or a purely ventral to dorsal linear gradient in the MPFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob M Parelman
- Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Bruce P Doré
- Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, H3A 1G5, Montreal, Canada
| | - Nicole Cooper
- Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | | | - Hang-Yee Chan
- Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Emily B Falk
- Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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29
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Saporta N, Scheele D, Lieberz J, Nevat M, Kanterman A, Hurlemann R, Shamay-Tsoory SG. Altered activation in the action observation system during synchronization in high loneliness individuals. Cereb Cortex 2022; 33:385-402. [PMID: 35220424 PMCID: PMC9837608 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Revised: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Lonely people tend to evaluate social exchanges negatively and to display difficulties in interactions. Interpersonal synchronization is crucial for achieving positive interactions, promoting affinity, closeness, and satisfaction. However, little is known about lonely individuals' ability to synchronize and about their brain activity while synchronizing. Following the screening of 303 participants, we recruited 32 low and 32 high loneliness participants. They were scanned while engaged in movement synchronization, using a novel dyadic interaction paradigm. Results showed that high loneliness individuals exhibited a reduced ability to adapt their movement to their partner's movement. Intriguingly, during movement adaptation periods, high loneliness individuals showed increased activation in the action observation (AO) system, specifically in the inferior frontal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobule. They did not show increased activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which in the context of synchronization was suggested to be related to gap-monitoring. Based on these findings, we propose a model according to which lonely people may require stronger activation of their AO system for alignment, to compensate for some deficiency in their synchronization ability. Despite this hyperactivation, they still suffer from reduced synchronization capacity. Consequently, synchronization may be a relevant intervention area for the amelioration of loneliness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nira Saporta
- Corresponding author: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave, Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
| | - Dirk Scheele
- Research Section Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany,Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstrasse 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Jana Lieberz
- Research Section Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - Michael Nevat
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Alisa Kanterman
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - René Hurlemann
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstrasse 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany,Research Center Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstrasse 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Simone G Shamay-Tsoory
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel
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30
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O'Connor MF, Seeley SH. Grieving as a form of learning: Insights from neuroscience applied to grief and loss. Curr Opin Psychol 2022; 43:317-322. [PMID: 34520954 PMCID: PMC8858332 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Revised: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Recent grief research suggests that the influential cognitive stress theory should be updated with evidence from cognitive neuroscience. Combining human and animal neuroscience with attachment theory, we propose that semantic knowledge of the everlasting nature of the attachment figure and episodic, autobiographical memories of the death are in conflict, perhaps explaining the duration of grieving and generating predictions about complications in prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Our gone-but-also-everlasting model emphasizes that grieving may be a form of learning, requiring time and experiential feedback. Difficulties before loss, such as spousal dependency or pre-existing hippocampal volume, can prolong learning and predict PGD. Complications such as avoidance, rumination, and stress-induced hippocampal atrophy may also develop after loss and create functional or structural mechanisms predicting PGD.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Saren H Seeley
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
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31
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Della Longa L, Valori I, Farroni T. Interpersonal Affective Touch in a Virtual World: Feeling the Social Presence of Others to Overcome Loneliness. Front Psychol 2022; 12:795283. [PMID: 35087455 PMCID: PMC8787079 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.795283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 12/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans are by nature social beings tuned to communicate and interact from the very beginning of their lives. The sense of touch represents the most direct and intimate channel of communication and a powerful means of connection between the self and the others. In our digital age, the development and diffusion of internet-based technologies and virtual environments offer new opportunities of communication overcoming physical distance. It however, happens that social interactions are often mediated, and the tactile aspects of communication are overlooked, thus diminishing the feeling of social presence, which may contribute to an increased sense of social disconnection and loneliness. The current manuscript aims to review the extant literature about the socio-affective dimension of touch and current advancements in interactive virtual environments in order to provide a new perspective on multisensory virtual communication. Specifically, we suggest that interpersonal affective touch might critically impact virtual social exchanges, promoting a sense of co-presence and social connection between individuals, possibly overcoming feelings of sensory loneliness. This topic of investigation will be of crucial relevance from a theoretical perspective aiming to understand how we integrate multisensory signals in processing and making sense of interpersonal exchanges, this is important in both typical and atypical populations. Moreover, it will pave the way to promising applications by exploring the possibility to use technical innovations to communicate more interactively in the case of people who suffer from social isolation and disconnection from others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Letizia Della Longa
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Irene Valori
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Teresa Farroni
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
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32
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Zajner C, Spreng RN, Bzdok D. Lacking Social Support is Associated With Structural Divergences in Hippocampus-Default Network Co-Variation Patterns. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:802-818. [PMID: 35086149 PMCID: PMC9433851 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Revised: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Elaborate social interaction is a pivotal asset of the human species. The complexity of people’s social lives may constitute the dominating factor in the vibrancy of many individuals’ environment. The neural substrates linked to social cognition thus appear especially susceptible when people endure periods of social isolation: here, we zoom in on the systematic inter-relationships between two such neural substrates, the allocortical hippocampus (HC) and the neocortical default network (DN). Previous human social neuroscience studies have focused on the DN, while HC subfields have been studied in most detail in rodents and monkeys. To bring into contact these two separate research streams, we directly quantified how DN subregions are coherently co-expressed with specific HC subfields in the context of social isolation. A two-pronged decomposition of structural brain scans from ∼40 000 UK Biobank participants linked lack of social support to mostly lateral subregions in the DN patterns. This lateral DN association co-occurred with HC patterns that implicated especially subiculum, presubiculum, CA2, CA3 and dentate gyrus. Overall, the subregion divergences within spatially overlapping signatures of HC–DN co-variation followed a clear segregation into the left and right brain hemispheres. Separable regimes of structural HC–DN co-variation also showed distinct associations with the genetic predisposition for lacking social support at the population level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris Zajner
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre (BIC), Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal H3A2B4, Canada
| | - R Nathan Spreng
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre (BIC), Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal H3A2B4, Canada
| | - Danilo Bzdok
- Correspondence should be addressed to Danilo Bzdok, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre (BIC), Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal H3A2B4, Canada. E-mail:
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33
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Zhao H, Li Y, Wang X, Kan Y, Xu S, Duan H. Inter-Brain Neural Mechanism Underlying Turn-Based Interaction Under Acute Stress in Women: A Hyperscanning Study Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:850-863. [PMID: 35079834 PMCID: PMC9433846 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Revised: 12/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
With the ever-changing social environment, stress has exerted a substantial influence on social interaction. The present study examined the underlying cognitive and neural mechanism on how acute stress affected the real-time cooperative and competitive interaction with four hypothesized path models. We used the hyperscanning technique based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) device to examine brain-to-brain coherence within the dyads engaging Pattern Game under acute stress manipulated through Trier Social Stress Test for Groups. Behavioral results showed stressed dyads exhibited better cooperative performance and higher self-other overlap level during the cooperative session than dyads in the control group. The fNIRS results identified higher interpersonal brain synchronization in the right temporal-parietal junction (r-TPJ) stronger Granger causality from partner-to-builder during the cooperative session in the stress group when compared with the control group. Our results corroborated better performance in the cooperative context and further identified that brain-to-brain coherence in r-TPJ and self-other overlap serially mediated the effect of acute stress on cooperative performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanxuan Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research & Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China
| | - Yadan Li
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China
| | - Xuewei Wang
- Centre for Mental Health Education, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710071, China
| | - Yuecui Kan
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China
| | - Sihua Xu
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research & Key Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China
| | - Haijun Duan
- Correspondence should be addressed to Haijun Duan, Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Yanta Campus, Shaanxi Normal University, 199 South Chang’ an Road, Xi’an 710062, China. E-mail:
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34
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Shany O, Greental A, Gilam G, Perry D, Bleich-Cohen M, Ovadia M, Cohen A, Raz G. Somatic engagement alters subsequent neurobehavioral correlates of affective mentalizing. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:5846-5861. [PMID: 34651382 PMCID: PMC8596949 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 07/04/2021] [Accepted: 08/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Socio‐emotional encounters involve a resonance of others' affective states, known as affect sharing (AS); and attribution of mental states to others, known as theory‐of‐mind (ToM). Empathy necessitates the integration of both processes, yet their interaction during emotional episodes and subsequent generation of inferences on others' affective states has rarely been tested. To address this, we developed a novel experimental design, wherein we manipulated AS by presenting nonverbal emotionally negative movies twice—each time accompanied by one of two soundtracks that accentuated either somatic cues or externally generated sounds. Movies were followed by questions addressing affective‐ToM (emotional inferences), cognitive‐ToM (inferences on beliefs and knowledge), and non‐ToM aspects. Results revealed a neural differentiation between AS, affective‐ToM, and cognitive‐ToM. AS movies activated regions that have been implicated in emotional (e.g., amygdala) and somatosensory processing, and synchronized brain activity between participants in the latter. Affective‐ToM activated the middle insula, limbic regions, and both ventral and dorsal portions of the medial prefrontal cortex (ventral medial prefrontal cortex [VMPFC] and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex [DMPFC], respectively), whereas cognitive‐ToM activated posteromedial and lateral–prefrontal and temporal cortices. Critically, AS movies specifically altered neural activation in AS and ToM‐related regions during subsequent affective‐ToM inferences, most notably in the DMPFC. Moreover, DMPFC–VMPFC connectivity correlated with affective‐ToM accuracy, when such questions followed AS movies. Our results associate empathic processes with designated neural activations and shed light on how neuro‐behavioral indices of affective ToM are shaped by preceding somatic engagement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ofir Shany
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.,Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Ayam Greental
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.,Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.,Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Gadi Gilam
- Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Daniella Perry
- Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Maya Bleich-Cohen
- Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Moran Ovadia
- Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.,Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Avihay Cohen
- Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Gal Raz
- Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.,Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.,Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
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35
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Temporal self-compression: Behavioral and neural evidence that past and future selves are compressed as they move away from the present. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2101403118. [PMID: 34848536 PMCID: PMC8670431 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101403118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
For centuries, great thinkers have struggled to understand how people represent a personal identity that changes over time. Insight may come from a basic principle of perception: as objects become distant, they also become less discriminable or “compressed.” In Studies 1–3, we demonstrate that people’s ratings of their own personality become increasingly less differentiated as they consider more distant past and future selves. In Study 4, we found neural evidence that the brain compresses self-representations with time as well. When we peer out a window, objects close to us are in clear view, whereas distant objects are hard to tell apart. We provide evidence that self-perception may operate similarly, with the nuance of distant selves increasingly harder to perceive. A basic principle of perception is that as objects increase in distance from an observer, they also become logarithmically compressed in perception (i.e., not differentiated from one another), making them hard to distinguish. Could this basic principle apply to perhaps our most meaningful mental representation: our own sense of self? Here, we report four studies that suggest selves are increasingly non-discriminable with temporal distance from the present as well. In Studies 1 through 3, participants made trait ratings across various time points in the past and future. We found that participants compressed their past and future selves, relative to their present self. This effect was preferential to the self and could not be explained by the alternative possibility that individuals simply perceive arbitrary self-change with time irrespective of temporal distance. In Study 4, we tested for neural evidence of temporal self-compression by having participants complete trait ratings across time points while undergoing functional MRI. Representational similarity analysis was used to determine whether neural self-representations are compressed with temporal distance as well. We found evidence of temporal self-compression in areas of the default network, including medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Specifically, neural pattern similarity between self-representations was logarithmically compressed with temporal distance. Taken together, these findings reveal a “temporal self-compression” effect, with temporal selves becoming increasingly non-discriminable with distance from the present.
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36
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Lieberz J, Shamay‐Tsoory SG, Saporta N, Esser T, Kuskova E, Stoffel‐Wagner B, Hurlemann R, Scheele D. Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2021; 8:e2102076. [PMID: 34541813 PMCID: PMC8564426 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202102076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Loneliness is a painful condition associated with increased risk for premature mortality. The formation of new, positive social relationships can alleviate feelings of loneliness, but requires rapid trustworthiness decisions during initial encounters and it is still unclear how loneliness hinders interpersonal trust. Here, a multimodal approach including behavioral, psychophysiological, hormonal, and neuroimaging measurements is used to probe a trust-based mechanism underlying impaired social interactions in loneliness. Pre-stratified healthy individuals with high loneliness scores (n = 42 out of a screened sample of 3678 adults) show reduced oxytocinergic and affective responsiveness to a positive conversation, report less interpersonal trust, and prefer larger social distances compared to controls (n = 40). Moreover, lonely individuals are rated as less trustworthy compared to controls and identified by the blinded confederate better than chance. During initial trust decisions, lonely individuals exhibit attenuated limbic and striatal activation and blunted functional connectivity between the anterior insula and occipitoparietal regions, which correlates with the diminished affective responsiveness to the positive social interaction. This neural response pattern is not mediated by loneliness-associated psychological symptoms. Thus, the results indicate compromised integration of trust-related information as a shared neurobiological component in loneliness, yielding a reciprocally reinforced trust bias in social dyads.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Lieberz
- Division of Medical PsychologyDepartment of Psychiatry and PsychotherapyUniversity Hospital Bonn53105BonnGermany
| | | | - Nira Saporta
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of HaifaHaifa3498838Israel
| | - Timo Esser
- Division of Medical PsychologyDepartment of Psychiatry and PsychotherapyUniversity Hospital Bonn53105BonnGermany
| | - Ekaterina Kuskova
- Division of Medical PsychologyDepartment of Psychiatry and PsychotherapyUniversity Hospital Bonn53105BonnGermany
| | - Birgit Stoffel‐Wagner
- Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical PharmacologyUniversity of Bonn53105BonnGermany
| | - René Hurlemann
- Department of PsychiatrySchool of Medicine and Health SciencesUniversity of Oldenburg26129OldenburgGermany
- Research Center Neurosensory ScienceUniversity of Oldenburg26129OldenburgGermany
| | - Dirk Scheele
- Division of Medical PsychologyDepartment of Psychiatry and PsychotherapyUniversity Hospital Bonn53105BonnGermany
- Department of PsychiatrySchool of Medicine and Health SciencesUniversity of Oldenburg26129OldenburgGermany
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37
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Della Longa L, Mento G, Farroni T. The Development of a Flexible Bodily Representation: Behavioral Outcomes and Brain Oscillatory Activity During the Rubber Hand Illusion in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:702449. [PMID: 34594191 PMCID: PMC8476838 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.702449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
During childhood, the body undergoes rapid changes suggesting the need to constantly update body representation based on the integration of multisensory signals. Sensory experiences in critical periods of early development may have a significant impact on the neurobiological mechanisms underpinning the development of the sense of one’s own body. Specifically, preterm children are at risk for sensory processing difficulties, which may lead to specific vulnerability in binding together sensory information in order to modulate the representation of the bodily self. The present study aims to investigate the malleability of body ownership in preterm (N = 21) and full-term (N = 19) school-age children, as reflected by sensitivity to the Rubber Hand Illusion. The results revealed that multisensory processes underlying the ability to identify a rubber hand as being part of one’s own body are already established in childhood, as indicated by a higher subjective feeling of embodiment over the rubber hand during synchronous visual-tactile stimulation. Notably, the effect of visual-tactile synchrony was related to the suppression of the alpha band oscillations over frontal, central, and parietal scalp regions, possibly indicating a greater activation of somatosensory and associative areas underpinning the illusory body ownership. Moreover, an interaction effect between visual-tactile condition and group emerged, suggesting that preterm children showed a greater suppression of alpha oscillatory activity during the illusion. This result together with lower scores of subjective embodiment over the rubber hand reported by preterm children indicate that preterm birth may affect the development of the flexible representation of the body. These findings provide an essential contribution to better understand the processes of identification and differentiation of the bodily self from the external environment, in both full-term and preterm children, paving the way for a multisensory and embodied approach to the investigation of social and cognitive development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Letizia Della Longa
- Developmental Psychology and Socialization Department, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Giovanni Mento
- General Psychology Department, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.,PNC Padua Neuroscience Centre, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Teresa Farroni
- Developmental Psychology and Socialization Department, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.,PNC Padua Neuroscience Centre, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
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38
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Lam JA, Murray ER, Yu KE, Ramsey M, Nguyen TT, Mishra J, Martis B, Thomas ML, Lee EE. Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review. Neuropsychopharmacology 2021; 46:1873-1887. [PMID: 34230607 PMCID: PMC8258736 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01058-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Loneliness is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Deeper understanding of neurobiological mechanisms underlying loneliness is needed to identify potential intervention targets. We did not find any systematic review of neurobiology of loneliness. Using MEDLINE and PsycINFO online databases, we conducted a search for peer-reviewed publications examining loneliness and neurobiology. We identified 41 studies (n = 16,771 participants) that had employed various methods including computer tomography (CT), structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), and post-mortem brain tissue RNA analysis or pathological analysis. Our synthesis of the published findings shows abnormal structure (gray matter volume or white matter integrity) and/or activity (response to pleasant versus stressful images in social versus nonsocial contexts) in the prefrontal cortex (especially medial and dorsolateral), insula (particularly anterior), amygdala, hippocampus, and posterior superior temporal cortex. The findings related to ventral striatum and cerebellum were mixed. fMRI studies reported links between loneliness and differential activation of attentional networks, visual networks, and default mode network. Loneliness was also related to biological markers associated with Alzheimer's disease (e.g., amyloid and tau burden). Although the published investigations have limitations, this review suggests relationships of loneliness with altered structure and function in specific brain regions and networks. We found a notable overlap in the regions involved in loneliness and compassion, the two personality traits that are inversely correlated in previous studies. We have offered recommendations for future research studies of neurobiology of loneliness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey A. Lam
- grid.40263.330000 0004 1936 9094Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI USA
| | - Emily R. Murray
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA ,grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - Kasey E. Yu
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - Marina Ramsey
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - Tanya T. Nguyen
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA ,grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA ,grid.410371.00000 0004 0419 2708Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA USA
| | - Jyoti Mishra
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - Brian Martis
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA ,grid.410371.00000 0004 0419 2708Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA USA
| | - Michael L. Thomas
- grid.47894.360000 0004 1936 8083Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA
| | - Ellen E. Lee
- grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA ,grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA USA ,grid.410371.00000 0004 0419 2708Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA USA
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39
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Decety J, Holvoet C. Le développement de l’empathie chez le jeune enfant. ANNEE PSYCHOLOGIQUE 2021. [DOI: 10.3917/anpsy1.213.0239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
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40
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Saporta N, Scheele D, Lieberz J, Stuhr-Wulff F, Hurlemann R, Shamay-Tsoory SG. Opposing Association of Situational and Chronic Loneliness with Interpersonal Distance. Brain Sci 2021; 11:1135. [PMID: 34573157 PMCID: PMC8471414 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11091135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Loneliness is a prevalent condition with adverse effects on physical and mental health. Evolutionary theories suggest it evolved to drive people to reconnect. However, chronic loneliness may result in a negative social bias and self-preservation behaviors, paradoxically driving individuals away from social interactions. Lonely people often feel they are not close to anyone; however, little is known about their interpersonal distance preferences. During COVID-19, many experienced situational loneliness related to actual social isolation. Therefore, there was a unique opportunity to examine both chronic and situational (COVID-19-related) loneliness. In the present study, 479 participants completed an online task that experimentally assessed interpersonal distance preferences in four conditions-passively being approached by a friend or a stranger, and actively approaching a friend or a stranger. Results show that high chronic loneliness was related to a greater preferred distance across conditions. Intriguingly, by contrast, high COVID-19-related loneliness was related to a smaller preferred distance across conditions. These findings provide further support for the evolutionary theory of loneliness: situational loneliness indeed seems to drive people towards reconnection, while chronic loneliness seems to drive people away from it. Implications for the amelioration of chronic loneliness are discussed based on these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nira Saporta
- School of Psychological Science, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel; (F.S.-W.); (S.G.S.-T.)
| | - Dirk Scheele
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany; (D.S.); (J.L.)
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany;
| | - Jana Lieberz
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany; (D.S.); (J.L.)
| | - Fine Stuhr-Wulff
- School of Psychological Science, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel; (F.S.-W.); (S.G.S.-T.)
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - René Hurlemann
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany;
- Research Center Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory
- School of Psychological Science, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel; (F.S.-W.); (S.G.S.-T.)
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Grennan G, Balasubramani PP, Alim F, Zafar-Khan M, Lee EE, Jeste DV, Mishra J. Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Loneliness and Wisdom during Emotional Bias. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:3311-3322. [PMID: 33687437 PMCID: PMC8196261 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Loneliness and wisdom have opposing impacts on health and well-being, yet their neuro-cognitive bases have never been simultaneously investigated. In this study of 147 healthy human subjects sampled across the adult lifespan, we simultaneously studied the cognitive and neural correlates of loneliness and wisdom in the context of an emotion bias task. Aligned with the social threat framework of loneliness, we found that loneliness was associated with reduced speed of processing when angry emotional stimuli were presented to bias cognition. In contrast, we found that wisdom was associated with greater speed of processing when happy emotions biased cognition. Source models of electroencephalographic data showed that loneliness was specifically associated with enhanced angry stimulus-driven theta activity in the left transverse temporal region of interest, which is located in the area of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), while wisdom was specifically related to increased TPJ theta activity during happy stimulus processing. Additionally, enhanced attentiveness to threatening stimuli for lonelier individuals was observed as greater beta activity in left superior parietal cortex, while wisdom significantly related to enhanced happy stimulus-evoked alpha activity in the left insula. Our results demonstrate emotion-context driven modulations in cognitive neural circuits by loneliness versus wisdom.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gillian Grennan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Fahad Alim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Mariam Zafar-Khan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Ellen E Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, 92161 CA, USA
| | - Dilip V Jeste
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Jyoti Mishra
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
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42
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Sippel LM, Holtzheimer PE, Huckins JF, Collier E, Feilong M, Wheatley T, Meyer ML. Neurocognitive mechanisms of poor social connection in posttraumatic stress disorder: Evidence for abnormalities in social working memory. Depress Anxiety 2021; 38:615-625. [PMID: 33621379 PMCID: PMC8169539 DOI: 10.1002/da.23139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Revised: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Poor social connection is a central feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but little is known about the neurocognitive processes associated with social difficulties in this population. We examined recruitment of the default network and behavioral responses during social working memory (SWM; i.e., maintaining and manipulating social information on a moment-to-moment basis) in relation to PTSD and social connection. METHODS Participants with PTSD (n = 31) and a trauma-exposed control group (n = 21) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing a task in which they reasoned about two or four people's relationships in working memory (social condition) and alphabetized two or four people's names in working memory (nonsocial condition). Participants also completed measures of social connection (e.g., loneliness, social network size). RESULTS Compared to trauma-exposed controls, individuals with PTSD reported smaller social networks (p = .032) and greater loneliness (p = .038). Individuals with PTSD showed a selective deficit in SWM accuracy (p = .029) and hyperactivation in the default network, particularly in the dorsomedial subsystem, on trials with four relationships to consider. Moreover, default network hyperactivation in the PTSD group (vs. trauma-exposed group) differentially related to social network size and loneliness (p's < .05). Participants with PTSD also showed less resting state functional connectivity within the dorsomedial subsystem than controls (p = .002), suggesting differences in the functional integrity of a subsystem key to SWM. CONCLUSIONS SWM abnormalities in the default network may be a basic mechanism underlying poorer social connection in PTSD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren M Sippel
- National Center for PTSD, US Department of Veterans Affairs, White River Junction, Vermont, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Paul E Holtzheimer
- National Center for PTSD, US Department of Veterans Affairs, White River Junction, Vermont, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Jeremy F Huckins
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Eleanor Collier
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Ma Feilong
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Thalia Wheatley
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Meghan L Meyer
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
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43
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Coley AA, Padilla-Coreano N, Patel R, Tye KM. Valence processing in the PFC: Reconciling circuit-level and systems-level views. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF NEUROBIOLOGY 2021; 158:171-212. [PMID: 33785145 DOI: 10.1016/bs.irn.2020.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
An essential component in animal behavior is the ability to process emotion and dissociate among positive and negative valence in response to a rewarding or aversive stimulus. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)-responsible for higher order executive functions that include cognition, learning, and working memory; and is also involved in sociability-plays a major role in emotional processing and control. Although the amygdala is widely regarded as the "emotional hub," the mPFC encodes for context-specific salience and elicits top-down control over limbic circuitry. The mPFC can then conduct behavioral responses, via cortico-striatal and cortico-brainstem pathways, that correspond to emotional stimuli. Evidence shows that abnormalities within the mPFC lead to sociability deficits, working memory impairments, and drug-seeking behavior that include addiction and compulsive disorders; as well as conditions such as anhedonia. Recent studies investigate the effects of aberrant salience processing on cortical circuitry and neuronal populations associated with these behaviors. In this chapter, we discuss mPFC valence processing, neuroanatomical connections, and physiological substrates involved in mPFC-associated behavior. We review neurocomputational and theoretical models such as "mixed selectivity," that describe cognitive control, attentiveness, and motivational drives. Using this knowledge, we describe the effects of valence imbalances and its influence on mPFC neural pathways that contribute to deficits in social cognition, while understanding the effects in addiction/compulsive behaviors and anhedonia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Austin A Coley
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | | | - Reesha Patel
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Kay M Tye
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, United States.
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44
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Ribeiro da Costa C, Soares JM, Oliveira-Silva P, Sampaio A, Coutinho JF. Interplay Between the Salience and the Default Mode Network in a Social-Cognitive Task Toward a Close Other. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:718400. [PMID: 35197871 PMCID: PMC8859259 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.718400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Social cognition relies on two main subsystems to construct the understanding of others, which are sustained by different social brain networks. One of these social networks is the default mode network (DMN) associated with the socio-cognitive subsystem (i.e., mentalizing), and the other is the salience network (SN) associated with the socio-affective route (i.e., empathy). The DMN and the SN are well-known resting state networks that seem to constitute a baseline for the performance of social tasks. We aimed to investigate both networks' functional connectivity (FC) pattern in the transition from resting state to social task performance. A sample of 38 participants involved in a monogamous romantic relationship completed a questionnaire of dyadic empathy and underwent an fMRI protocol that included a resting state acquisition followed by a task in which subjects watched emotional videos of their romantic partner and elaborated on their partner's (Other condition) or on their own experience (Self condition). Independent component and ROI-to-ROI correlation analysis were used to assess alterations in task-independent (Rest condition) and task-dependent (Self and Other conditions) FC. We found that the spatial FC maps of the DMN and SN evidenced the traditional regions associated with these networks in the three conditions. Anterior and posterior DMN regions exhibited increased FC during the social task performance compared to resting state. The Other condition revealed a more limited SN's connectivity in comparison to the Self and Rest conditions. The results revealed an interplay between the main nodes of the DMN and the core regions of the SN, particularly evident in the Self and Other conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cátia Ribeiro da Costa
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi - Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Jose M Soares
- Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | | | - Adriana Sampaio
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi - Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Joana F Coutinho
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi - Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
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45
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Intrinsic functional network contributions to the relationship between trait empathy and subjective happiness. Neuroimage 2020; 227:117650. [PMID: 33338612 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2020] [Revised: 11/24/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Subjective happiness (well-being) is a multi-dimensional construct indexing one's evaluations of everyday emotional experiences and life satisfaction, and has been associated with different aspects of trait empathy. Despite previous research identifying the neural substrates of subjective happiness and empathy, the mechanisms mediating the relationship between the two constructs remain largely unclear. Here, we performed a data-driven, multi-voxel pattern analysis of whole-brain intrinsic functional connectivity to reveal the neural mechanisms of subjective happiness and trait empathy in a sample of young females. Behaviorally, we found that subjective happiness was negatively associated with personal distress (i.e., self-referential experience of others' feelings). Consistent with this inverse relationship, subjective happiness was associated with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex exhibiting decreased functional connectivity with regions important for the representation of unimodal sensorimotor information (e.g., primary sensory cortices) or multi-modal summaries of brain states (e.g., default mode network) and increased functional connectivity with regions important for the attentional modulation of these representations (e.g., frontoparietal, attention networks). Personal distress was associated with the medial prefrontal cortex exhibiting functional connectivity differences with similar networks--but in the opposite direction. Finally, intrinsic functional connectivity within and between these networks fully mediated the relationship between the two behavioral measures. These results identify an important contribution of the macroscale functional organization of the brain to human well-being, by demonstrating that lower levels of personal distress lead to higher subjective happiness through variation in intrinsic functional connectivity along a neural representation vs. modulation gradient.
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46
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Spreng RN, Dimas E, Mwilambwe-Tshilobo L, Dagher A, Koellinger P, Nave G, Ong A, Kernbach JM, Wiecki TV, Ge T, Li Y, Holmes AJ, Yeo BTT, Turner GR, Dunbar RIM, Bzdok D. The default network of the human brain is associated with perceived social isolation. Nat Commun 2020; 11:6393. [PMID: 33319780 PMCID: PMC7738683 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20039-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 98] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans survive and thrive through social exchange. Yet, social dependency also comes at a cost. Perceived social isolation, or loneliness, affects physical and mental health, cognitive performance, overall life expectancy, and increases vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease-related dementias. Despite severe consequences on behavior and health, the neural basis of loneliness remains elusive. Using the UK Biobank population imaging-genetics cohort (n = ~40,000, aged 40-69 years when recruited, mean age = 54.9), we test for signatures of loneliness in grey matter morphology, intrinsic functional coupling, and fiber tract microstructure. The loneliness-linked neurobiological profiles converge on a collection of brain regions known as the 'default network'. This higher associative network shows more consistent loneliness associations in grey matter volume than other cortical brain networks. Lonely individuals display stronger functional communication in the default network, and greater microstructural integrity of its fornix pathway. The findings fit with the possibility that the up-regulation of these neural circuits supports mentalizing, reminiscence and imagination to fill the social void.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Nathan Spreng
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, HRH 1R3, Canada.
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
| | - Emile Dimas
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Alain Dagher
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Philipp Koellinger
- School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Gideon Nave
- Marketing Department, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Anthony Ong
- Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA
| | - Julius M Kernbach
- Department of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgical Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Aachen (NAILA), RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany
| | | | - Tian Ge
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - Yue Li
- School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Avram J Holmes
- Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CA, 06520, USA
| | - B T Thomas Yeo
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Centre for Sleep & Cognition, Clinical Imaging Research Centre, N.1 Institute for Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Gary R Turner
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Robin I M Dunbar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Danilo Bzdok
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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