Search

Recent advances in social neuroscience have highlighted the critical role of the cerebellum in social cognition, and especially the posterior cerebellum. Studies have supported the view that the posterior cerebellum builds internal action models of our social interactions to predict how other people’s actions will be executed and what our most likely responses are to these actions. This mechanism allows to better anticipate action sequences during social interactions in an automatic and intuitive way and to fine-tune these anticipations, making it easier to understand other’s social behaviors and mental states (e.g. beliefs, intentions, traits). In this paper, we argue that the central role of the posterior cerebellum in identifying and automatizing social action sequencing provides a fruitful starting point for investigating social dysfunctions in a variety of clinical pathologies, such as autism, obsessive–compulsive and bipolar disorder, depression, and addiction. Our key hypothesis is that dysfunctions of the posterior cerebellum lead to under- or overuse of inflexible social routines and lack of plasticity for learning new, more adaptive, social automatisms. We briefly review past research supporting this view and propose a program of research to test our hypothesis. This approach might alleviate a variety of mental problems of individuals who suffer from inflexible automatizations that stand in the way of adjustable and intuitive social behavior, by increasing posterior cerebellar plasticity using noninvasive neurostimulation or neuro-guided training programs., SCOPUS: no.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Empathy allows us to share emotions and encourages us to help others. It is especially important in the context of parenting where children’s wellbeing is dependent on their parents’ understanding and fulfilment of their needs. To date, little is known about differences in empathy responses of parents and non-parents. Using stimuli depicting adults and children in pain, this study focuses on the interaction of motherhood and neural responses in areas associated with empathy. Mothers showed higher activation to both adults and children in pain in the bilateral anterior insulae, key regions of empathy for pain. Additionally, mothers more strongly activated the inferior frontal, superior temporal and the medial superior frontal gyrus. Differences between adult and child stimuli were only found in occipital areas in both mothers and non-mothers. Our results suggest a stronger neural response to others in pain in mothers than non-mothers regardless of whether the person is a child or an adult. This could indicate a possible influence of motherhood on overall neural responses to others in pain rather than motherhood specifically shaping child-related responses. Alternatively, stronger responses to others in pain could increase the likelihood for women to be in a relationship and subsequently to have a child.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that people can adapt quickly to ensure that their social needs are met after being forced to isolate and socially distance. Many individuals turned immediately to music, as evidenced by people singing from balconies, watching live concerts on social media, and group singing online. In this article, we show how these musical adaptations can be understood through the latest advances in the social neuroscience of music-an area that, to date, has been largely overlooked. By streamlining and synthesizing prior theory and research, we introduce a model of the brain that sheds light on the social functions and brain mechanisms that underlie the musical adaptations used for human connection. We highlight the role of oxytocin and the neurocircuitry associated with reward, stress, and the immune system. We show that the social brain networks implicated in music production (in contrast to music listening) overlap with the networks in the brain implicated in the social processes of human cognition-mentalization, empathy, and synchrony-all of which are components of herding; moreover, these components have evolved for social affiliation and connectedness. We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic could be a starting point for an improved understanding of the relationship between music and the social brain, and we outline goals for future research in the social neuroscience of music. In a time when people across the globe have been unable to meet in person, they have found a way to meet in the music. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Detecting emotional facial expressions is an initial and indispensable component of face-to-face communication. Neuropsychological studies on the neural substrates of this process have shown that bilateral amygdala lesions impaired the detection of emotional facial expressions. However, the findings were inconsistent, possibly due to the limited number of patients examined. Furthermore, whether this processing is based on emotional or visual factors of facial expressions remains unknown. To investigate this issue, we tested a group of patients (n = 23) with unilateral resection of medial temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala, and compared their performance under resected- and intact-hemisphere stimulation conditions. The participants were asked to detect normal facial expressions of anger and happiness, and artificially created anti-expressions, among a crowd with neutral expressions. Reaction times for the detection of normal expressions versus anti-expressions were shorter when the target faces were presented to the visual field contralateral to the intact hemisphere (i.e., stimulation of the intact hemisphere; e.g., right visual field for patients with right hemispheric resection) compared with the visual field contralateral to the resected hemisphere (i.e., stimulation of the resected hemisphere). Our findings imply that the medial temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala, play an essential role in the detection of emotional facial expressions, according to the emotional significance of the expressions.

In this paper, joint decision making processes are studied and the role of cognitive metaphors as mental models in them. A second-order self-modeling network model is introduced based on mechanisms known from cognitive and social neuroscience and cognitive metaphor and mental model literature. The cognitive metaphors were modeled as specific forms of mental models providing a form of modulation within the joint decision making process. The model addresses not only the use of these mental models in the decision making, but also their hebbian learning and the control over the learning. The obtained self-modeling network model was applied to two types of metaphors that affect joint decision making in different manners: a cooperative metaphor and a competitive metaphor. By a number of scenarios it was shown how the obtained self-modeling network model can be used to simulate and analyze joint decision processes and how they are influenced by such cognitive metaphors.

Bien que la sociologie ait pour objet l'analyse du comportement humain, elle a toujours eu une attitude ambivalente avec certains concepts cles pour ce genre d'analyse. L'un des exemples les plus significatifs est celui de la conscience. D'une part, la centralite de ce concept pour l'analyse sociologique est demontree par la diffusion de son utilisation, tant chez les auteurs classiques que chez les auteurs contemporains ; d'autre part, une definition claire et partagee de celui-ci est consideree comme hors de question, car il ne peut etre reduit aux methodes empiriques de scientificite qui prevalent encore dans la sociologie contemporaine. L'essai propose une approche alternative possible qui, stimulee par l'influence des neurosciences et des sciences cognitives, peut conduire a une nouvelle approche de l'etude sociologique de la conscience

Although empathy drives prosocial behaviors, it is not always a reliable source of information in moral decision making. In this essay, I integrate evolutionary theory, behavioral economics, psychology, and social neuroscience to demonstrate why and how empathy is unconsciously and rapidly modulated by various social signals and situational factors. This theoretical framework explains why decision making that relies solely on empathy is not ideal and can, at times, erode ethical values. This perspective has social and societal implications and can be used to reduce cognitive biases and guide moral decisions.

La emergencia epidemiológica por COVID-19, es una pandemia que se afrontó en todo el mundo, afectando directa o indirectamente a muchos países, por lo que es importante analizar las consecuencias neurocognitivas desde una perspectiva de la neurociencia social. Partimos que, el área neurocognitiva de la persona se refleja en los procesos de la memoria, atención, razonamiento, lenguaje, conciencia, funciones ejecutivas, otros, pudiendo ser modificados por los estímulos externos, en este caso, la crisis que generó la enfermedad como tal, pero también los estresores siempre relacionados a la pandemia; los impactos en la economía, el cambio en la escuela o trabajo, el encierro, el distanciamiento social, la corrupción, entre otros. Con un enfoque cualitativo, utilizando como herramienta la compilación de estudios previos sobre el tema, se visualiza desde un enfoque epistemológico, resaltando el impacto del estrés en cambios como la percepción social, las neuronas espejo, la teoría de la mente, la autoconciencia, autorreflexión, el autoconcepto, memoria, la autorregulación emocional, prejuicios, relaciones sociales, rechazo social, resiliencia. Por lo anterior expuesto, las consecuencias neurocognitivas de la COVID-19, requieren de una mirada multidisciplinaria, para poder contribuir de forma integral en el abordaje desde todos los ámbitos de salud.

Empathy is a complex social-cognitive ability that is best understood by distinguishing its emotional, cognitive and motivational dimensions, which from early childhood interact between the child and her/his social environment. To date, among the many factors that are acknowledged to influence the development of empathy, children's temperament and parenting behaviors have been identified as interacting in predicting the extent to which children demonstrate empathic responses. Recent studies in developmental social neuroscience cast light on the neural networks engaged in the development of each of the dimensions that constitute empathy, which are needed to navigate social interaction and establishing positive social relationships. Indeed, early deficits in empathic processes can lead to difficulties in socialization, particularly associated with reduced attention to others' emotions, especially when they are suffering, a lesser degree of remorse and guilt, and a greater tendency to ignore social norms or break the rules. Difficulties in socialization are particularly visible in two well-known developmental disorders: children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with conduct disorder and callous unemotional traits (CU). This paper provides a critical and selective review of recent empirical studies in psychopathology and developmental neuroscience by addressing the dimensions underlying empathy, specifically emotional sharing and caring for others. For children with ASD, some studies report that they pay less attention to another person in distress. However, functional neuroimaging studies conducted with ASD adolescents indicate that the emotional dimension appears to be preserved, but a lack of emotional self-regulation may impair them from experiencing empathic concern. Children with conduct disorder and CU traits clearly manifest a reduced autonomic nervous system response to others' distress or suffering. This may account for their disregard or contempt for others' well-being and social norms. Functional neuroimaging studies show that atypical patterns of brain activity at 15 months of age can predict later severe conduct disorder. Neural regions engaged in emotional processing such as the anterior cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala shown reduced activation to empathy-eliciting stimuli in children with CU. Finally, the genetic nature of CU traits is highlighted in several studies. We conclude by proposing several avenues for developmental research to identify biomarkers from an early age and by inviting to focus on psychological interventions with those populations accordingly.

Atypical neural response to faces is thought to contribute to social deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Compared to typically developing (TD) controls, individuals with ASD exhibit delayed brain responses to upright faces at a face-sensitive event-related potential (ERP), the N170. Given observed differences in patterns of visual attention to faces, it is not known whether slowed neural processing may simply reflect atypical looking to faces. The present study manipulated visual attention to facial features to examine whether directed attention to the eyes normalizes N170 latency in ASD. ERPs were recorded in 30 children and adolescents with ASD as well as 26 TD children and adolescents. Results replicated prior findings of shorter N170 latency to the eye region of the face in TD individuals. In contrast, those with ASD did not demonstrate modulation of N170 latency by point of regard to the face. Group differences in latency were most pronounced when attention was directed to the eyes. Results suggest that well-replicated findings of N170 delays in ASD do not simply reflect atypical patterns of visual engagement with experimental stimuli. These findings add to a body of evidence indicating that N170 delays are a promising marker of atypical neural response to social information in ASD. LAY SUMMARY: This study looks at how children's and adolescents' brains respond when looking at different parts of a face. Typically developing children and adolescents processed eyes faster than other parts of the face, whereas this pattern was not seen in ASD. Children and adolescents with ASD processed eyes more slowly than typically developing children. These findings suggest that observed inefficiencies in face processing in ASD are not simply reflective of failure to attend to the eyes.

Viewing pictures of social interaction can facilitate approach behaviors. We conducted two studies to investigate if social interaction cues, empathy, and/or social touch modulate facial electromyographic (EMG) reactivity (as evidenced by the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles) and mood states. We presented bonding pictures (depicting social interaction) and control pictures (without social interaction) while continuously recording zygomatic and corrugator EMG activities. In both studies, picture blocks were paired by valence and arousal. All participants were college students. In study 1, participants (n = 80, 47 women) read relevant priming texts immediately before viewing each block of 14 pictures. In study 2, participants did not read (n = 82, 63 women) priming texts before each block of 28 pictures. In study 1 and study 2, participants also completed mood states questionnaires to assess sociability and altruistic behavior. Empathy and social touch frequency were also assessed by self-reported questionnaires. In both studies, bonding pictures increased the zygomatic activity and the self-reported sociability feeling compared to control pictures. Only in study 2, bonding pictures decreased median corrugator activity compared to control pictures. We concluded that social interaction cues were efficient to increase sociability and prompt a sustained smile expression regardless of priming texts.

As robots advance from the pages and screens of science fiction into our homes, hospitals, and schools, they are poised to take on increasingly social roles. Consequently, the need to understand the mechanisms supporting human–machine interactions is becoming increasingly pressing. We introduce a framework for studying the cognitive and brain mechanisms that support human–machine interactions, leveraging advances made in cognitive neuroscience to link different levels of description with relevant theory and methods. We highlight unique features that make this endeavour particularly challenging (and rewarding) for brain and behavioural scientists. Overall, the framework offers a way to study the cognitive science of human–machine interactions that respects the diversity of social machines, individuals’ expectations and experiences, and the structure and function of multiple cognitive and brain systems.

Referrals for gender dysphoria (GD), characterized by a distressful incongruence between gender identity and at-birth assigned sex, are steadily increasing. The underlying neurobiology, and the mechanisms of the often-beneficial cross-sex hormone treatment are unknown. Here, we test hypothesis that own body perception networks (incorporated in the default mode network—DMN, and partly in the salience network—SN), are different in trans-compared with cis-gender persons. We also investigate whether these networks change with cross-sex hormone treatment. Forty transmen (TrM) and 25 transwomen (TrW) were scanned before and after cross-sex hormone institution. We used our own developed Body Morph test (BM), to assess the perception of own body as self. Fifteen cisgender persons were controls. Within and between-group differences in functional connectivity were calculated using independent components analysis within the DMN, SN, and motor network (a control network). Pretreatment, TrM and TrW scored lower “self” on the BM test than controls. Their functional connections were weaker in the anterior cingulate-, mesial prefrontal-cortex (mPFC), precuneus, the left angular gyrus, and superior parietal cortex of the DMN, and ACC in the SN “Self” identification and connectivity in the mPFC in both TrM and TrW increased from scan 1 to 2, and at scan 2 no group differences remained. The neurobiological underpinnings of GD seem subserved by cerebral structures composing major parts of the DMN.

Previous research has shown that observing another individual receiving a painful stimulus leads to motor facilitation as indexed by faster reaction times. The current study explores whether the type of action that is executed modulates this facilitation effect. Specifically, we examined whether approach-like and withdraw-like movements are differentially influenced by pain observation. In experiment 1, participants performed key presses (approach) and releases (withdraw) after observing another person in pain (vs. no pain). In experiment 2, participants used a joystick to make forward (approach) and backward (withdraw) movements after observing another person in pain (vs. no pain). Across both experiments, we did not find evidence for differential effects of pain observation on approach-like and withdraw-like movements. We do, however, report a robust response-general effect of pain observation on motor behaviour (i.e., faster reaction times after pain observation vs. no pain, regardless of movement type). We discuss these results in relation to the wider emotion, attention, and social neuroscience of empathy literatures.

Increases in cultural and religious diversity have led to calls for toleration of differences, although it is unclear how calling for toleration impacts people’s affective and attitudinal responses. The present research conducted in a small western nation examines if calling for toleration of Muslim minority practices elicits an aggressive backlash against the group amongst those relatively conservative, using relative left frontal EEG activity to examine the motivational processes involved. Non-Muslim participants from New Zealand (N = 172) self-reported their political orientation before being randomly assigned to a toleration or control condition involving writing and reflection tasks about Muslims. Participants then evaluated various groups including Muslims while EEG was recorded. Results revealed that among those relatively conservative, toleration produced higher levels of relative left frontal activity, which in turn led to more negative evaluations of Muslims (relative to control participants). However, for those relatively liberals, toleration had no impact on neuropsychological or attitudinal responses relative to controls. Collectively, these findings suggest that intergroup toleration may backfire amongst those relatively conservative, undermining its intended purpose.

Research on the psychological paths leading towards involvement in violent extremism and terrorism has not produced a consistent layout of traits describing recurrent dispositions or plausible vulnerabilities. Extremist/terrorizing violence can adopt many forms from lone-actor attacks to guerrilla actions and other war-like tactics, and such versatility defies unifying depictions. Advances achieved at identifying important elements of ingroup dynamics and commitment ties mediating the surge and activities of violent groups neglected individual factors. Recent research has re-established the relevance of individual temperament traits to explain the attraction, engagement and support to these combative coalitions and the different roles and involvement that people enact in them. This essay presents some of these research forefronts and proposes further integration between individuality-based measures with ingroup-related mechanisms when studying proneness to violent extremism. A merge between Personality and Forensic Psychology with Social Neuroscience appears as a particularly fruitful track to generate consistent advancement in the area.

Embodying an artificial agent through immersive virtual reality (IVR) may lead to feeling vicariously somatosensory stimuli on one’s body which are in fact never delivered. To explore whether vicarious touch in IVR reflects the basic individual and social features of real-life interpersonal interactions we tested heterosexual men/women and gay men/lesbian women reacting subjectively and physiologically to the observation of a gender-matched virtual body being touched on intimate taboo zones (like genitalia) by male and female avatars. All participants rated as most erogenous caresses on their embodied avatar taboo zones. Crucially, heterosexual men/women and gay men/lesbian women rated as most erogenous taboo touches delivered by their opposite and same gender avatar, respectively. Skin conductance was maximal when taboo touches were delivered by female avatars. Our study shows that IVR may trigger realistic experiences and ultimately allow the direct exploration of sensitive societal and individual issues that can otherwise be explored only through imagination.

We investigated in a sample of non-clinical adults the association between Theory of Mind (ToM) and Executive Functions (EFs), that is the set of skills that allow people to control and modulate lower-level cognitive processes in order to produce appropriate behaviour. To this aim, we assessed both affective (i.e., understanding other people’s emotions and feelings) and cognitive (i.e., understanding others’ beliefs and intentions) ToM, as well four subcomponents of EFs, that is Updating, Shifting, Inhibition, and Access. The association between ToM and non-verbal fluid intelligence, verbal reasoning, and cognitive estimation abilities was also investigated. Eighty-one healthy participants were recruited, and a set of psychometrically validated tests was administered. Multiple regression analyses were run to assess significant predictors of ToM performance when potentially confounding predictors (sociodemographic variables) were controlled for. Results showed a lack of association between affective/cognitive ToM and EFs, whereas non-verbal fluid intelligence for cognitive ToM and verbal reasoning for affective ToM were found to be significant predictors of ToM performance. These results represent a contribution toward a deeper understanding of the ToM-EFs relationships and highlight the importance of broadening the analysis of these relationships to the role played by other domain-general functions in both affective and cognitive ToM.

This study interrogates the frequently made claim that mirroring behavior is directly linked to interpersonal rapport. The paper proposes a more nuanced conceptualization of the positive effect of mirroring, showing it to be underpinning not affiliation as such but instead speakers' joint commitment to a common interactional cause. The analysis of naturally occurring talk shows that sound imitation is primarily an affiliation-neutral resource that facilitates the progression of interaction. The paper argues that socially embedded mirroring behavior is more than a behavioral manifestation of the motor resonance described in social neuroscience. Mirroring as part of jointly achieved talk is one of several mechanisms for conversational participants to establish progressivity, that is, trajectories of social action, sequence and stance. The data also show that sound mirroring, when it is part of naturally occurring interaction, is not automatic, but that participants choose to mirror, or not. It is proposed that socially situated imitation is reconceptualized as facilitating social collaboration and the joint achievement of interaction more broadly, rather than empathy or rapport in a narrow sense. Such a reconceptualization of mirroring allows us to describe more accurately how humans build sociality.

We investigated the modulation of neural and behavioral responses to moral dilemmas by the physical presence of a close friend. We argue that the presence of a close other not only changes the moral response but also the process of decision-making, something that can only be discovered by combining insights from social and cognitive psychology. Our participants rated the acceptability of sacrificing ingroup members to save outgroup members and vice versa while being alone or in the presence of a close other. We obtained behavioral and functional MRI data from a within-participant functional MRI study (N = 17, native Dutch women). The behavioral data replicated classical identity theory with regard to higher acceptability to sacrifice the outgroup (vs. the ingroup) but did not show any differences when deciding alone or in the presence of the friend. The imaging results did not reveal main and interaction effects in our hypothesized brain areas. Exploratory analysis however revealed an interaction effect in a region previously found to be related to guilt and shame (superior frontal gyrus), such that reactions to the sacrifice of the outgroup evoked increased activation when being together with a close other. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Conservatives are more sensitive to threatening/anxious situations in perceptual and cognitive levels, experiencing emotional responses and stress, while liberals are more responsive to but tolerant of ambiguous and uncertain information. Interestingly, conservatives have greater psychological well-being and are more satisfied with their lives than liberals despite their psychological vulnerability to stress caused by threat and anxiety sensitivities. We investigated whether conservatives have greater resilience and self-regulation capacity, which are suggested to be psychological buffers that enhance psychological well-being, than liberals and moderates. We also explored associations between intrinsic functional brain organization and these psychological resources to expand our neurobiological understanding of self-regulatory processes in neuropolitics. We found that conservatives, compared to liberals and moderates, had greater psychological resilience and self-regulation capacity that were attributable to greater impulse control and causal reasoning. Stronger intrinsic connectivities between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and precuneus and between the insula and frontal pole/OFC in conservatives were correlated with greater resilience and self-regulation capacity. These results suggest the neural underpinnings that may allow conservatives to manage the psychological stress and achieve greater life satisfaction. This study provides neuroscientific evidence for the different responses of liberals and conservatives to politically relevant social issues.

Loneliness is increasingly recognised as the next critical public health issue. A plausible reason for this concern may be related to emerging societal trends affecting the way we relate, communicate, and function in our social environment. In 2006, a prominent review of the clinical significance of loneliness was published. However, there has not been a comprehensive update on known and emerging risk factors and correlates of loneliness since then. Furthermore, there is no conceptual model that has been developed to better account for the complexity of loneliness and to inform the development of evidence-based solutions as we challenge the issues of the twenty-first century. We reviewed the current literature to identify either known or emerging risk factors and correlates of loneliness since 2006. This includes new or known evidence on: (1) demography; (2) health, including physical health; mental health; cognitive health; brain, biology, and genetics; and (3) socio-environmental factors including digital communication and the workplace. We synthesized the literature according to a new proposed conceptual model of loneliness which showed the interplay between known and emerging correlates and risk factors from demography, health, to socio-environmental factors. In the conceptual model of loneliness, we illustrated how solutions can be delivered and tailored to an individual based on their life circumstances and preferences. We concluded by making specific recommendations in advancing our scientific understanding of loneliness. Our knowledge can only be deepened if we increase scientific rigour via accounting for confounding variables and using longitudinal, multi-disciplinary, and multiple methodologies in research. We also call for the rigorous evaluation of programs targeting loneliness.

Humans are highly attuned to perceptual cues about their values. A growing body of evidence suggests that people selectively attend to moral stimuli. However, it is unknown whether morality is prioritized early in perception or much later in cognitive processing. We use a combination of behavioral methods and electroencephalography to investigate how early in perception moral words are prioritized relative to non-moral words. The behavioral data replicate previous research indicating that people are more likely to correctly identify moral than non-moral words in a modified lexical decision task. The electroencephalography data reveal that words are distinguished from non-words as early as 200 ms after onset over frontal brain areas and moral words are distinguished from non-moral words 100 ms later over left-posterior cortex. Further analyses reveal that differences in brain activity to moral vs non-moral words cannot be explained by differences in arousal associated with the words. These results suggest that moral content might be prioritized in conscious awareness after an initial perceptual encoding but before subsequent memory processing or action preparation. This work offers a more precise theoretical framework for understanding how morality impacts vision and behavior.

Background: Nurses describe work-related distress and exhaustion as compassion fatigue and burnout. However, neuroscientists confirm compassion does not cause fatigue. Aim: This discussion paper explains contemporary social neuroscience evidence about empathy, emotion regulation, and compassion, then discusses evidence-informed strategies to cultivate effective self-care practices and compassion. Methods: The argument draws on relevant empirical evidence and literature to raise awareness, improve understanding, and spark dialogue and reconceptualisation of these critical issues within the nursing context. Findings and discussion: Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies show the debilitating condition known as compassion fatigue should be called 'empathic distress fatigue'. This distinction matters because the strategy to ease empathic distress fatigue is compassion training. The capacity to remain clear about the 'self-other' distinction is called emotion regulation. Without emotion regulation skills, our 'self-other' distinction is blurred so we absorb another's suffering and negative emotions as our own and experience empathic distress fatigue. Yet, much of this knowledge is not implemented within the nursing context. On the contrary, the topic of compassion fatigue continues to dominate education and research. This knowledge gap is significant because healthcare leaders cannot address the distress of its workforce and strengthen cultures without understanding its causes. Conclusion: Evidence from social neuroscience and self-care studies offers promising new knowledge to design strategies to foster self-care, self-compassion, emotion regulation, and ease empathic distress fatigue. These strategies and practices for renewal support the raison d'être of nursing which is to provide quality, safe, compassionate care for patients and their families by resilient nurses. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Awe tends to be defined as an emotion characterised by a perception of vastness that challenges or negates existing concepts of the world, creating a "need for accommodation". Emerging research on linguistic labels for awe-like experiences suggests that, while there is no universal word for disorienting experiences of vastness, there is cross-cultural recognition of encountering forces superior to oneself. Under the theory of constructed emotion in social neuroscience, the experience of encountering a force greater than oneself results in behaviour that serves group interests when those interests are part of the perceiver's concept of the vast stimulus. I argue that this is true in most cases, since awe-inspiring charismatic leaders, historical artefacts, and elaborate ceremonies directly represent group interests. Meanwhile, vast natural scenes encourage individuals to conceive of themselves in more superordinate terms (e.g., as human) within the scene. If experiences of awe-inspiring ceremonies, leaders, historical artefacts and natural features have a prosocial component that encourages consideration of group-level interests, it is possible that the "need for accommodation" component of awe is, in many cases, a social process. Within the framework of self-categorisation theory, it might be a process of adopting the identity of a group that is broader than family-based and friendship-based groups that one typically identifies with.

More than a decade of neuroimaging and brain stimulation studies point to a crucial role for the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) in prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model postulates that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior, whereas the reflective model assumes that the rDLPFC controls selfish impulses during prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model implies that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should increase voluntary transfers in both dictator and generosity games. In contrast, the reflective model suggests that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should decrease transfers in the dictator game, without affecting voluntary transfers in the generosity game, in which selfish motives are minimized. The aim of this paper was to compare predictions of the intuitive and reflective models using the classic dictator game and generosity game and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). In this study, two groups of healthy participants (dictators) received either cTBS over the rDLPFC or right extrastriate visual areas. As shown by the results, the transient disruption of the rDLPFC significantly promoted prosocial motives in the dictator game only, particularly in the trials with the lowest dictator’s costs. These findings partially support the notion that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior.

The interrelation between motor and emotional processes has been a recurrent question since several decades in the scientific literature. An interesting experimental technique to explore this question is posturography which assess the modulation of human postural control. In an emerging scientific field, this technique has been used to explore the reaction of the body in different emotional conditions. However, among available studies, some inconsistencies appear. In this brief report, we want to show how a widely used experimental model, i.e., empathy for pain, allowed in several study to provide comprehensive understanding elements on the postural correlates of socioemotional information processing. In particular, the role of mental simulation is discussed.

A great story told by a musician is the basis of the best stage experimentation of the second half of the 20th century. The musician is John Cage, whose work synthesizes the entire system of arts within the extraordinary world of the avant-garde. This great story begins with the experimental artistic activities which were developed in the 1920s, consolidated in the thirties and continued through the post-war period up to the dawn of the fifties. Apart from the socio-historical cross-section Cage’s experimentation provides, it is also a pretext for reflecting on the artist’s work as well as the relationship between neuroscience and art. Important contributions to this topic come from the neuro-scientific-social research on new expressions “of creativity, imagination, genius” (Pecchinenda, 2018). This study is based on the assumption that Cage was the forerunner of neuronal experimentation that would be central to the experiments and research of many other artists. The theoretical reference model can be found in the research of the neuroscientist Kandel et al, whose work was the starting point for this investigation. Kandel grasps the definitive break between scientific logic and humanistic sensitivity in the methodological reductionism practiced by neuroscience and in the experiments of contemporary creativity. According to Kandel, both neuroscience and artistic experimentation have similar objectives and problems, and in some respects seem to develop similar methodological practices. Kandel identifies the use of memory, synthesis and knowledge of the world in authors such as Mondrian, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Louis, Warhol as well as the New York school of which Cage was an important member. The relationship between art and neuroscience is synthetized in the avant-garde action of Cage and in all the artists who launched continuous attacks against traditional forms. The transition from figurative art to abstraction is “comparable” to the reductionist process that is used in the scientific field to explain complexity and phenomenology. The prolegomena of this discourse are anticipated by a previous work written by Kandel in 2012 and can also be found in other studies on the relationship between neuroscience and art, in particular in the reflections of the neurobiologist and father of neuroaesthetics, Semir Zeki. Zeki analyzed artists work as a practice perfectly comparable to the research carried out by neuroscientists. Cage, the focus of this investigation, carried out a sound-stage-vision experimentation affecting theatre, media and art which can be examined from at least two different perspectives. The first concerns the definitive subversion of “innate rules of perception” (Kandel) and the second deals with the relationship between art and neuroscience.

A controversial and unresolved issue in cognitive neuroscience is whether humans can experience supernumerary limbs as part of their own body. Some previous experiments have claimed that it is possible to elicit supernumerary hand illusions based on modified versions of the rubber hand illusion. However, other studies have provided conflicting results that suggest that only one rubber hand can be perceived as one's own. To address this issue, we developed a supernumerary hand illusion paradigm that allowed us to disambiguate ownership of individual rubber hands from simultaneous ownership of two fake hands. In our setup, the participant's real right hand was hidden under a platform, while two identical right rubber hands were placed in parallel on top of the platform in direct view of the participant. We applied synchronous strokes to both rubber hands and the real hand (SS), synchronous strokes to one rubber hand and the real hand and asynchronous strokes to the other model hand (AS and SA), or asynchronous strokes to both fake hands in relation to the real hand (AA). Our results demonstrate that a genuine illusion of owning two rubber hands can be elicited and that such a supernumerary hand illusion can be isolated from the sense of ownership of a single rubber hand both in terms of questionnaire ratings and threat-evoked skin conductance responses (SCRs). These findings advance our knowledge about the dynamic flexibility and fundamental constraints of body representation and emphasize the importance of correlated afferent signals for causal inference in body ownership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

This article discusses insights from computational models and social neuroscience into motivations, precursors, and mechanisms of altruistic decision-making and other-regard. We introduce theoretical and methodological tools for researchers who wish to adopt a multilevel, computational approach to study behaviors that promote others' welfare. Using examples from recent studies, we outline multiple mental and neural processes relevant to altruism. To this end, we integrate evidence from neuroimaging, psychology, economics, and formalized mathematical models. We introduce basic mechanisms-pertinent to a broad range of value-based decisions-and social emotions and cognitions commonly recruited when our decisions involve other people. Regarding the latter, we discuss how decomposing distinct facets of social processes can advance altruistic models and the development of novel, targeted interventions. We propose that an accelerated synthesis of computational approaches and social neuroscience represents a critical step towards a more comprehensive understanding of altruistic decision-making. We discuss the utility of this approach to study lifespan differences in social preference in late adulthood, a crucial future direction in aging global populations. Finally, we review potential pitfalls and recommendations for researchers interested in applying a computational approach to their research. This article is categorized under: Economics > Interactive Decision-Making Psychology > Emotion and Motivation Neuroscience > Cognition Economics > Individual Decision-Making.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with socially embedded movements such as imitation and interpersonal synchrony (IPS); however, related movement characteristics and underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood. Aim: This study compared the movement characteristics and cortical activation patterns of children with and without ASD during a whole-body, sway synchrony task when different levels of social information were provided. Methods: Thirty children with and without ASD (mean age: 12.6 years, SE: 0.6 years) participated. Movement kinematics and fNIRS-based cortical activation were recorded when the child observed an adult tester sway side to side, when they swayed solo, or when they swayed face to face with the tester with or without fingertips touching (i.e., IPS). Results: Children with ASD showed reduced synchrony and insufficient sway amplitude compared to typically developing children without ASD. They showed reduced cortical activation over the inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus during IPS and failed to increase their cortical activation when more social information was provided. The cortical activation findings were significantly associated with IPS behaviors and social communication performance. Conclusion: The ASD-related neurobiomarkers identified in our study could be used as objective measures to evaluate intervention effects in children with ASD.

Introduction Alpha oscillations are unique in their capacity to relay neuronal information through a dual‐process named “gating by inhibition”: rhythmic enhancement inhibits task‐irrelevant regions while rhythmic suppression engages task‐relevant regions in the brain. A social‐cognitive process that operates by relying on the suppression of the alpha rhythm in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is the ability to generate empathy. This phenomenon has been evidenced in dozens of electrophysiological studies targeting adult human subjects. Yet, recent studies on the neurodevelopment of empathy indicate that in younger age, empathy does not involve alpha suppression in S1 but only enhancement. More interestingly, right before adulthood, this rhythm is still enhanced, but in a remarkable shift, a pattern of suppression emerges. In this registered magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we will capture frequency‐decomposed neural activity particularly at the alpha range and its corresponding hemodynamic response and target subjects at around 20 years old as a unique time‐window in development that allows investigating in parallel both low‐alpha suppression and high‐alpha enhancement. We aim to address two questions: (a) Does alpha power suppression in the S1 region during empathy correspond to BOLD increase in this region? (b) What is the functional role of alpha power enhancement during empathy development (BOLD signal increase or decrease)? Addressing these questions will particularly advance knowledge on the process of empathy in the brain, and the way in which it is underpinned by alpha oscillations. Moreover, examining these experimental outcomes can potentially lay the ground for future studies that would further examine the role of alpha oscillations in empathy during the course of development. Methods Brain data of forty healthy individuals close to 20 years old will be recorded in two consecutive MEG and fMRI sessions while subjects observing physical pain versus neutral stimuli. Besides, each participant's subjective experiences wll be measred by questionnaires, interviews and rating of the stimuli., Weinvestigate here the dual‐process of alpha oscillations. We follow up on our previous surprising studies that found a unique feature of this dual process in the course of the neurodevelopment of empathy. This study will further investigate this phenomenon by implementing within‐subject MEG and fMRI sessions.

Many daily choices are based on one's own knowledge. However, when predicting other people's behavior, we need to consider the differences between our knowledge and other people's presumed knowledge. Social agents need a mechanism to use privileged information for their own behavior but exclude it from predictions of others. Using fMRI, we investigated the neural implementation of such social and personal predictions in healthy human volunteers of both sexes by manipulating privileged and shared information. The medial frontal cortex appeared to have an important role in flexibly making decisions using privileged information for oneself or predicting others' behavior. Specifically, we show that ventromedial PFC tracked the state of the world independent of the type of decision (personal, social), whereas dorsomedial regions adjusted their frame of reference to the use of privileged or shared information. Sampling privileged evidence not available to another person also relied on specific interactions between temporoparietal junction area and frontal pole.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTWhat we know about the minds of others and how we use that information is crucial to understanding social interaction. Mentalizing, or reading the minds of others, is argued to be particularly well developed in the human and crucially affected in some disorders. However, the intractable nature of human interactions makes it very difficult to study these processes. Here, we present a way to objectively quantify the information people have about others and to investigate how their brain deals with this information. This shows that people use similar areas in the brain related to nonsocial decision-making when making decisions in social situations and modify this information processing by the knowledge about others use these to modify their information processing according to the knowledge of others.

Coercive power has different effects on individuals, and which were unable to be fully addressed in Milgram’s famous studies on obedience to authority. While some individuals exhibited high levels of guilt-related anxiety and refused orders to harm, others followed coercive orders throughout the whole event. The lack of guilt is a well-known characteristic of psychopathy, and recent evidence portrays psychopathic personalities on a continuum of clustered traits, while being pervasive in a significant proportion in the population. To investigate whether psychopathic traits better explain discrepancies in antisocial behavior under coercion, we applied a virtual obedience paradigm, in which an experimenter ordered subjects to press a handheld button to initiate successive actions that carry different moral consequences, during fMRI scanning. Psychopathic traits modulated the association between harming actions and guilt feelings on both behavioral and brain levels. This study sheds light on the individual variability in response to coercive power.

In recent years, the benefits of practicing mindfulness have raised much public and academic interest. Mindfulness emphasizes cultivating awareness of our immediate experience, and has been associated with compassion, empathy and various other prosocial traits. However, experimental evidence pertaining to its prosocial benefits in social settings is lacking. In this study, we investigate neural correlates of trait mindfulness during naturalistic dyadic interactions, using both individual brain and inter-brain coupling measures. We used the Muse headset, a portable electroencephalogram (EEG) device, to record participants’ brain activity during a ∼10 minutes’ naturalistic dyadic interaction (N = 62) in an interactive art setting. They further completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). This allowed us to ask whether inter-brain coupling during naturalistic interactions can be predicted by dyads’ affective traits and trait mindfulness, respectively. First, we failed replicating prior laboratory-based findings with respect to individual brain responses as they relate to mindfulness. Trait mindfulness did, however, predict inter-brain coupling within dyads, in theta (∼5-8 Hz, p < 0.001) and beta frequencies (∼26-27Hz, p < 0.001). Finally, we found a negative correlation between personal distress and trait mindfulness (t(475) = -5.493, p < 0.001). These findings underscore the importance of conducting social neuroscience research in ecological settings and enrich our understanding of multi-brain neural correlates of mindfulness during social interaction, while raising critical practical considerations regarding the viability of commercially available EEG systems.

The ability to recognize emotions in others and adapt one’s behavior accordingly is critical for functioning in any social context. This ability is impaired in several psychiatric disorders, such as autism and psychopathy. Recent work has identified the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) among other brain regions involved in this process. Neural recording studies have shown that neurons in ACC are modulated by reward or shock when delivered to a conspecific and when experienced first-hand. Since previous studies do not vary reward and shock within the same experiment, it has been unclear whether the observed activity reflects how much attention is being paid to outcomes delivered to a conspecific or the valence associated with those stimuli. To address this issue, we recorded from ACC as rats performed a Pavlovian task that predicted whether reward, shock, or nothing would be delivered to the rat being recorded from or a conspecific located in the opposite chamber. Consistent with previous reports, we found that the firing of ACC neurons was modulated by aversive stimuli delivered to the recording rat and their conspecific. Activity of some of these neurons genuinely reflected outcome identity (i.e., reward or shock), however the population of neurons as a whole responded similarly for both reward and shock, as well as for cues that predicted their occurrence (i.e., reward >neutral and shock > neutral; attention). These results suggest that ACC can process information about outcomes (i.e., identity, recipient) in the service of promoting attention in some social contexts.

Solitary confinement is not cruel and unusual punishment. It is cruel and unusual if one or more of its accompanying material conditions result in a wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain upon an individual. This requirement is met when such conditions involve a “deprivation of basic identifiable human needs” to an extent that they inflict harm or create a “substantial risk of serious harm” and they are enacted with “deliberate indifference” by prison personnel. With limited exceptions, the Supreme Court and lower federal courts have perpetuated a narrow application of these standards. In particular, Courts have often discounted the generalized mental pain caused by extreme isolation. Accordingly, Courts have often neglected the duration of solitary confinement as an autonomous aspect of constitutional scrutiny. Growing neuroscientific research has emphasized that social interaction and environmental stimulation are of vital importance for physiological brain function. It has further highlighted that socio-environmental deprivation can have damaging effects on the brain, many of which may entail irreversible consequences. Drawing on these insights, this article suggests that solitary confinement is in and of itself cruel and unusual punishment even under the current standards. Avenues for a profound rethinking of solitary confinement regimes are presented and discussed.

Resumen Introducción: La teoría de la mente (ToM) es una de las dimensiones de la Cognición Social más relevantes y de gran interés para la investigación en psicología del desarrollo, psicología cognitiva, neuropsicología y neurociencias sociales, así como en la labor clínica. Esto ha conllevado a la generación de instrumentos validados para la evaluación de esta función; sin embargo, en español son pocos los que hay y aún menos los adaptados para población infantil y adolescente. Objetivo: En el presente trabajo se presenta la adaptación de la Batería de la ToM, el inventario de la ToM, el Test de Paso en Falso y el Test de la Mirada, cuatro instrumentos con tareas clásicas para evaluar la ToM. Método: El proceso de adaptación se hizo en dos fases, una de traducción al español y otra de adaptación cultural. Para verificar los resultados se hizo un pilotaje para todos los instrumentos con 20 participantes en edades entre 4 y 13 años y 20 participantes entre 6 y 17 años. Resultados: Se presentan los cuatro instrumentos adaptados en español con los principales ajustes en cada uno de ellos. Discusión: Se discute sobre la importancia de generar un protocolo de valoración de la ToM haciendo una validación estadística de estos instrumentos. Abstract Introduction: Theory of Mind (ToM) is one of the most important dimensions of Social Cognition (SC); it is of great interest for research in Development Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Neuropsychology, and Social Neuroscience as well as for clinical practice. It has stimulated the creation and validation of instruments to asses this dimension as a cognitive process, but there are few instruments like these in Spanish and less to evaluating children and adolescents. Objective: This paper reports the adaptation into Spanish of four instruments to asses ToM: The Theory of Mind Battery, The Theory of Mind Inventory-2, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes and the Faux Pas Test. Method: The adaptation process was made in two steps first, translation and, second, cultural adaptation. To verify the results a pilot testing was carried out in two groups, one with children between 4 and 13 years old and other with children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years old. Results: Instruments adapted into Spanish are presented as results highlighting the main adjustments made to each tool. Discussion: The importance of creating a protocol with statistical validation to asses ToM are discussed.

Humans are social animals and typically tend to seek social interactions. In our daily life we constantly move our gaze to collect visual information which often includes social information, such as others’ emotions and intentions. Recent studies began to explore how individuals vary in their gaze behavior. However, these studies focused on basic features of eye movements (such as the length of movements) and did not examine the observer predilection for specific social features such as faces. We preformed two test-retest experiments examining the amount of time individuals fixate directly on faces embedded in images of naturally occurring scenes. We report on stable and robust individual differences in visual predilection for faces across time and tasks. Individuals’ preference to fixate on faces could not be explained by a preference for fixating on low-level salient regions (e.g. color, intensity, orientation) nor by individual differences in the Big-Five personality traits. We conclude that during visual exploration individuals vary in the amount of time they direct their gaze towards faces. This tendency is a trait that not only reflects individuals’ preferences but also influences the amount of information gathered by each observer, therefore influencing the basis for later cognitive processing and decisions.

This paper gives an analysis of some conceptual issues in the neuroscientific study of empathy. The focus will almost exclusively be on a seminal paper by Decety and Jackson (2004) on the functional architecture of empathy. The authors withstand reductionistic tendencies in the exposition of what their findings might mean for the psychology of social cognition. They are aware of the thorny conceptual issues that arise when attempting to bridge intuitive folk psychological conceptions of empathy with explanations offered by social psychology, developmental science, and, most of all, neuroscience. They defend a conception which puts emphasis on the developmental, interactional and human aspects of empathy. In the second part of the paper we will see that this overt contention is at some points at odds with the conceptual framework that underlies the presentation of scientific findings. It will appear that the method of decomposition, i.e., breaking empathy down into (mutually interacting) ‘pieces’, is difficult to reconcile with the idea that empathy should primarily be defined as an interactional phenomenon. The method of decomposition puts empathy back within the brain, whereas recent philosophical work argues that empathy needs a definition which includes both processes in the empathizing subject and in the person with whom the subject empathizes. In the final part of the paper it is asked whether, how and to what extent it does matter that professionals know about the social neuroscience of empathy and, especially, its underlying conceptual framework. It is argued that conceptual innovations that currently are emerging in social neuroscience do matter for clinical and legal practices. In spite of the limitations mentioned earlier, Decety & Jackson's developmental and interactional approach helps to overcome reductionistic and mentalistic interpretations of human empathy.

Social psychology is a branch of psychology which is on the threshold of psychology and sociology. It is a field with wide application, since it studies the human action in diverse situations, and it involves the relation of the individual with a group. In this way, this paper aimed to present some of the great themes of social psychology (self, attitudes and behavior, group influence, culture and values, personality, emotions, and social neuroscience) and demonstrate the feasible interfaces of these topics with fashion. Through a bibliographical research it is shown that there is a possibility of dialogue between the theories of social psychology and fashion. Finally, we suggest research topics in which the exposed themes can contribute to studies developed in the field of fashion.

Self-compassionate mindfulness is an important component of self-compassion and has been viewed as an essential factor contributing to well-being. With current advances in social neuroscience highlighting the neurogenetic basis of human behaviors, the present study aimed to investigate the neurogenetic foundation of self-compassionate mindfulness. Of particular interest is OXTR rs53576, which is responsible for affiliation and has been suggested as the potential genetic mechanism underlying self-compassionate mindfulness. We performed a resting-state fMRI and used a graph theory-based analysis in a sample of genotyped healthy college students. The Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF) was used to assess the trait of self-compassion. G allele carriers of OXTR rs53576 displayed higher self-compassionate mindfulness than did A/A carriers (p = 0.034, ηp2 = 0.086). Moreover, the graphic metric of the degree in regions in the empathy network (i.e., the right angular gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex) mediated the association between OXTR rs53576 and self-compassionate mindfulness (95% CI [0.1716, 1.2929]). The graphic metric of the local efficiency in regions of the executive control network (i.e., the right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex) also mediated the relationship between OXTR rs53576 and self-compassionate mindfulness (95% CI [0.1792, 1.2866]). These findings advance our understanding of how self-compassionate mindfulness affects mental health improvements, which is conducive to preventions and interventions aiming to enhance well-being.

Social neuroscience is unveiling how the brain coordinates the construal of social categories and the generation of intergroup biases from facial perception. Recent evidence indicates that social categorization is more sensitive and malleable to elemental facial features than previously assumed. At the same time, perception of social categories can be crafted by top-down factors, including prior knowledge, motivations, and social expectations. In this review, we summarize extant wisdom and propose a model that goes beyond traditional accounts that have conceived stereotypes and prejudices as the end result of "reading out" social categories in the face, and have assumed a hierarchical brain organization. Our model proposes recursive and dynamic interactions amid distant brain regions. Accordingly, the reciprocal exchange of sensory evidence and predictions biases and "explains away" visual input in face perception regions until a compromise is achieved and social perception stabilizes. Ideally, this effort would contribute to shape a research field at the interface between neural and social sciences, which is often referred to as social vision.

Empathy supports adaptive social behaviors such as cooperation and helping. It is also fragile, and commonly unravels in contexts such as intergroup conflict. Insights from neuroscience support the idea that empathy is context sensitive, but recent findings suggest that empathy (and its fragility) reflect individuals' motives in a given context rather than context alone. Here we explore motivated empathy from the perspective of social neuroscience, examining how motives shape empathy-related brain activity. We also describe recent motive-based empathy interventions, their biological underpinnings, and their behavioral consequences. Finally, we propose novel applications of recent neuroimaging techniques to promote empathy, emotional wellbeing, and social adjustment.

Although empathy impairments have been reported in autistic individuals, there is no clear consensus on how emotional valence influences this multidimensional process. In this study, we use the Multifaceted Empathy Test for juveniles (MET-J) to interrogate emotional and cognitive empathy in 184 participants (ages 8–59 years, 83 autistic) under the robust Bayesian inference framework. Group comparisons demonstrate previously unreported interaction effects between: (1) valence and autism diagnosis in predictions of emotional resonance, and (2) valence and age group in predictions of arousal to images portraying positive and negative facial expressions. These results extend previous studies using the MET by examining differential effects of emotional valence in a large sample of autistic children and adults with average or above-average intelligence. We report impaired cognitive empathy in autism, and subtle differences in emotional empathy characterized by less distinction between emotional resonance to positive vs. negative facial expressions in autism compared to neurotypicals. Reduced emotional differentiation between positive and negative affect in others could be a mechanism for diminished social reciprocity that poses a universal challenge for people with autism. These component- and valence- specific findings are of clinical relevance for the development and implementation of target-specific social interventions in autism.

Humans all over the world believe in spirits and deities, yet how the brain supports religious cognition remains unclear. Drawing on a unique sample of patients with penetrating traumatic brain injuries (pTBI) and matched healthy controls (HCs) we investigate dependencies of religious cognition on neural networks that represent (1) others agents’ intentions (Theory of Mind, ToM) and (2) other agents’ feelings (Empathy). Extending previous observations that ToM networks are recruited during prayer, we find that people with vmPFC damage report higher scores on the personal relationship with God inventory even when they are not praying. This result offers evidence that it is the modulation of ToM networks that support beliefs in supernatural agents. With respect to empathetic processing, we observed that vmPFC and pSTS/TPJ lesions mediated by the strength of the personal relationship with God affect empathetic responses. We suggest that the neurological networks underpinning God representations amplify human empathetic responses. The cultural evolutionary study of religion has argued that supernatural beliefs evoke pro-social responses because people fear the wrath of Gods. Our findings imply greater attention should be paid to the mechanisms by which religious cognition may regulate empathetic responses to others. Results - Descriptive statistic results. - Group analysis. - Correlation analyses. - Mediation analysis. Discussion Materials and methods - Participants. - CT acquisition and analysis. - Neuropsychological testing. - Statistical analyses.

Determining the generalizability of biological mechanisms sup- porting psychological constructs is a central goal of cognitive neuroscience. Self-esteem is a popular psychological construct that is associated with a variety of measures of mental health and life satisfaction. Recently, there has been interest in identifying biological mechanisms that support individual differences in self-esteem. Understanding the biological basis of self-esteem requires identifying predictive biomarkers of self-esteem that generalize across groups of individuals. Previous research us- ing diffusion magnetic resonance imaging has shown that self- esteem is related to the integrity of structural connections link- ing frontostriatal brain systems involved in self-referential processing and reward. However, these findings were based on a small, relatively homogeneous group of participants. In the cur- rent study, we used an out-of-sample predictive modeling approach to generalize the results of the previous study to an independent sample of participants more than twice the size of the original study. We found that both linear univariate and multivariate machine learning models trained on frontostriatal integrity from the original data significantly predicted self-esteem in the independent dataset. These findings underscore the relationship between self-esteem and frontostriatal connectivity and suggest these results are robust to differences in scanning acquisition, analytic methods, and participant demographics.

Mechanisms for fish social behaviours involve a social brain network (SBN) which is evolutionarily conserved among vertebrates. However, considerable diversity is observed in the actual behaviour patterns amongst nearly 30000 fish species. The huge variation found in socio-sexual behaviours and strategies is likely generated by a morphologically and genetically well-conserved small forebrain system. Hence, teleost fish provide a useful model to study the fundamental mechanisms underlying social brain functions. Herein we review the foundations underlying fish social behaviours including sensory, hormonal, molecular and neuroanatomical features. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons clearly play important roles, but the participation of vasotocin and isotocin is also highlighted. Genetic investigations of developing fish brain have revealed the molecular complexity of neural development of the SBN. In addition to straightforward social behaviours such as sex and aggression, new experiments have revealed higher order and unique phenomena such as social eavesdropping and social buffering in fish. Finally, observations interpreted as 'collective cognition' in fish can likely be explained by careful observation of sensory determinants and analyses using the dynamics of quantitative scaling. Understanding of the functions of the SBN in fish provide clues for understanding the origin and evolution of higher social functions in vertebrates.

An important task for adolescents is to form and maintain friendships. In this three-wave biannual study, we used a longitudinal neuroscience perspective to examine the dynamics of friendship stability. Relative to childhood and adulthood, adolescence is marked by elevated ventral striatum activity when gaining self-serving rewards. Using a sample of participants between the ages of eight and twenty-eight, we tested age-related changes in ventral striatum response to gaining for stable (n = 48) versus unstable best friends (n = 75) (and self). In participants with stable friendships, we observed a quadratic developmental trajectory of ventral striatum responses to winning versus losing rewards for friends, whereas participants with unstable best friends showed no age-related changes. Ventral striatum activity in response to winning versus losing for friends further varied with friendship closeness for participants with unstable friendships. We suggest that these findings may reflect changing social motivations related to formation and maintenance of friendships across adolescence., A reward-related ventral striatum response is observed when rewards are gained for friends. Here the authors examine how this response changes from childhood to young adulthood, and show that friendship stability in adolescence is associated with ventral striatum responses to vicarious rewards.