Social cognition

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  • Created by: Kelseyb
  • Created on: 12-01-18 14:43

self referential processing

  • memory tasks= verbs remembered more efficiently if have been presented in relation to ones self compared to others- self refrential processing 
  • FMRI- activity in medial prefrontal cortex differed sig when info processed in relation to self
  • MPFC- less deativation when self referential material processed, rather than genuine increases in acitvation
  • self referential descriptions about specific traits dont seem to rely on autobiographical memory while similar descriptions regarding others do rely on episodic memories
  • tested when subjects given personality adjectives and had to rate them according to self descriptivness or non self referential (diff study)
  •  seperate session-  asked to provide autobiographical memories which give  examples of the adjectives 
  • if inital session had required access to the autobiographical memories then should have been faster to provide examples when they were self referential compared to purely descriptive. however, no difference found
  • self referential description- does not require access to autobiographical memories also supported by patients who suffer from dense aneterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia 
  • these subjects can still give accurate descriptions about their main character traits despite no acccess to autobiograohical memory
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resting state network

  • resting state network assumed to be involved in some forms of introspection, day dreaming, possibly memory consolidation after event has happened
  • all these= mental 'actions' related to self 
  • main areas which belong to resting state network are- ventral medial cortex, posterior medial cortex, and posterior lateral cortices 
  • resting state network gets deactivated when we attend to events of external world + more activated when subjects are at resk of engaged in simple task
  • might explain why MPFC (part of resting state network) less deactivated when attending to adjectives that are self referential comapred to adjectives related to other people 
  • latter requires more attention to external world (even if just in terms of memory retrieval)
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self referential bias for positive traits

  • bias for positive traits and positive future events (for ourselves) 
  • area in most Anterior part of cingulate cortex seems to be responsible to focus attention on positive information (particularly for self)
  • some studies reported hypoactivity in this area of depressed individuals. this could be in relation to an inability to focus attention to positive self information
  • orbitofrontal cortex- structure involved in self perception during social encounters
  • patients with lesions (OFC) often interact in an inapropriate manner with strangers in social encounters
  • due to inability of self monitoring while being in situation- get embaressed when see video of themselves after
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theory of mind

  • MPFC also involved in forming impressions about other people
  • revealed in FMRI- subjects required to view faces and read sentences along with face presentation
  • either had to form impression about character of presented face or memorize order of face/sentence presentation
  • impression formation- MPFC more active
  • area involved in theory of mind is right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ)
  • this area active in 'false belief tasks' and active when subjects confronted with info regarding others mental state but not others 'abstract' life events
  • rTPJ strongly involved in redirecting attention in an invalid cueing task. false belief task also requires redirecting of attention 
  • thus could be proposed that the rTPJ is involved in redirecting attention to non-social cues AND to social cues. 
  • rTPJ likely interacts with MPFC when it comes to assessing other peoples mental states 
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nonverbal cues, gaze direction and mental states

  • nonverbal cues- give lies away.
  • so, must be able to interpret nonverbal cues and relate them to the others mental state
  • gaze direction- one of the strongest non-verbal cues
  • singnals where we attend to, but also signal  insecurity (or determination) among other things
  • Single unit studies in monkeys and FMRI in humans identified parts of- superior temporal sulcus (STS) as being critically involved in processing the 'intent' of gaze direction, rather than physical features of it
  • autism- difficulty TOM and with tasks infering others mental state. difficulty interpreting irony, reading other peoples emotions - 'mindblindness' 
  • autisim- specific gaze pattern- avoiding eye contact
  • could be emtoional reasons? or due to inability to read the non-verbal cues that are present in other peoples eye movements
  • autism- suffer from, range of anatomical abnormalities in terms of cortical and subcortical organization
  • autistic people show much less activation in MPFC and RTPJ in TOM tasks compared to control subjects
  • sm- could not read fearful expressions. - bilateral lesions to amygdala + didnt look into eyes
  • autism- usually acompannied by reduced amygdala size - also avoid eye
  •  
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simulation theory, empathy, mirror neurons

  • simulation theory- TOM abilities are related to ability to simulate the feeling and cognitive state of others, likely using same network that processes identical information in relation to ourselves
  • FMRI support- looked at activation pattern that occured when we had to process information relating to other individuals 
  • could be a)dissimilar b)similar
  • MPFC distinguished between individuals similar and disimilar
  • ventral MPFC processed info in relation to self, sig. more active when we processed info of other individuals which were similar to us 
  • dorsal MPFC sig. more activation when processing info of individuals disimilar
  • empathy- ability to feel for others. strong form of simulation theory. 
  • empathy- due to activity of so called mirror neurons. 
  • mirror neurons- macaque monkeys.
  • originally discovered in brain areas related to motor behaviour. but these neuorns did not only fire when animal made specific movememnet (e.g. reaching out for food) but fired when saw researcher reaching for food. 
  • asif able to interpret action of researcher in animals own terms
  • 'mirrored' in motor terms what researcher did
  • later found out that they encoded other peoples actions in more abstract terms 
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simulation theory, empathy, mirror neurons (2)

  • neurons represented specific type of action, irresepctive of whether was self perfromed or perfromed by others
  • these neurons may explain why we are so good at copying other peoples behaviour- we have a neural substrate for simulation that directly translated into action
  • mirror neurons assumed to exist beyond action mirroring
  • might enable us to feel what others feel
  • FMRI in healthy p's. areas that normally process emotion when related to self were also differentially affected when others expressed the specific emotion
  • i.e. insual cortex active disgusted. also became active when viewing faces with disgust expression
  • no differential activity seen in fusiform gyrus
  • neurons what let us feel disgust also activated when others feel disgust
  • i.e. represent a specific type of mirror neurons
  • also for pain. include insual cortex and cingulate cortex
  • empathy affected by our affection state relative to person suffering. particularly for men. 
  • prisoners dilema type task. fair vs. unfair players. learn about 'fairness' of individuals. subsequent fmri experiment where players receive electric shocks- activity in insual cortex depends on if we perceive player as fair or not. men also activity in pleasure centre-  nucleus accumbens. correlated desire for revenge 
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social knowledge

  • appropriatness. - orbitofrontal cortex.
  • damage OC- behave inapropriately in simple social contexts even if they know what correct behaviour should be
  • 'utlization behaviour'-  a behaviour which makes use of environmental cues without taking context into account. 
  • social knowledge, emotions and decision making- closely related
  • decision making in humans based on rational approaches where all pros and cons assessed in rational way + best value option gets the vote 
  • OC damage-  struggle with making appropriate decisions
  • OCF assumed to be related to processing of emotions- rational decisions shouldnt be based on emotions?
  • somatic marker hypothesis- we provide emotional labels to certain decision making situations which label as good or bad. use experience of similar situations to make these decisions by retrieving labels and applying to current situation
  • yields faster decision making response + also takes individual preference into account without need for long deliberation
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neuroeconomics

  • neuroeconomics = novel field which attemps to answer question of how we decide on the value of certain actions and where in brain these value calculations performed
  • always strive to max rewards and min loses
  • calculation of reward- orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate gyrus, parietal cortex, amygdala, basal ganglia  etc)
  • single unit studies- shown how we learn about rewarding actions, and how activity pattern shift from signalling a  received reward to predicting reward assciated with specific actions
  • Framing effect- preference for positively phrased solutions over negative ones
  • even if outcome identical, many people risk gamble when confronted with neg phrasing
  • FMRI shows that amygdala more active when subjects chose win option in gain condition and when chose gamble in loss conditions
  • opposite pattern found in anterior cingulate cortex- activity increased when subjects went counter preferred stratergy and gambled on keep trials and not on loss trials
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moral decisions and neuroethics

  • choices depend on level of involvement 
  • FMRI tested moral dilemas, with varying levels of personal invovement showed DLPFC and bilateral parietal lobe mostly active when little personal involvement required (in line with DLPFC in more abstract planning + goal oriented behaviour)
  • more personal involvement activated MPFC in line with its role of processing info relative to the 'self'
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Comments

Emberrypie

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I don't suppose you have full revision notes for this topic, specifically TOM and simulation theory with Autism? I am still misunderstanding the topic, any help is much appreciated! 

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