Social Neuroscience - Liu Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is the goal of social neuroscience?
To investigate the biological mechanisms that underlie these social structures, processes, and behaviour and the influences between social and neural structures and processes.
What are the methods used in social neuroscience?
Measuring brain activity: Electrical activity by EEG, Blood flow by MRI.
Measuring hormones: Cortisol levels
What is social categorization?
Mentally classifying someone as belonging to a social group.
Social categorization is the first step in building a stereotype (unaware if/when, reluctant to report)
Stereotypes: Beliefs about social groups.
What did the EEG study on social categorization reveal?
Participants viewed pictures of people of different social categories. Results suggested that brain activity looks different when viewing members of different social groups. This is apparent at 200 ms. These differences are seen even if not paying attention directly.
What is the self-referencing model?
Using your own mental states to inform our own opinion of another person’s mental states.
What is the rule-based model?
Using a set of social rules to make inferences about another person’s mental states
How is mental state inferred?
Simulation hypothesis
How do you test for the simulation hypothesis?
Are the same brain regions used for thinking about our own mental states AND thinking about others?
in the fMRI scanner ask participants to think about themselves VS think about others
What are the brain areas involved when testing the simulation hypothesis?
- Medial Prefrontal Cortex
- Amygdala
- Temporal Parietal Junction
- Superior Temporal Sulcus
What is social stress?
Stress that stems from one’s relationships with others and from the social environment. Due to behaviours and situations.
A paradigm that is used to study social stress is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)
What is the stress response? Describe the pathway.
In response to stress, the body goes into fight or flight mode. In the brain, the hypothalamus releases Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH) which targets the pituitary gland and stimulates it to release Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH) and activating the sympathetic nervous system and sending signals to the adrenal gland. ACTH then travels down via autonomic nerves to it’s target, the adrenal gland sitting on top of the kidneys. The adrenal cortex will secrete glucocorticoids as a response, while the adrenal medulla will release epinepherine and norepinepherine into the bloodstream. As the initial surge of epinephrine subsides, the hypothalamus activates the second component of the stress response system — known as the HPA axis. This network consists of the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands
Check notes to see how much she talked about this
crosscheck: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
How is cortisol used to study stress?
1) Using others as a source of stress - concern ovr being evaluated by others and interacting with outgroup members
2) Using others as a source of protection from stress - social support as a buffer against stress.
Design a sample social neuroscience study using fMRI
Give an example
Social exclusion - key findings (1)
Association between resilient
functioning at age 24 and
mood change scores (A) and
between friendships at 14 and
need satisfaction change
scores (B) across both
inclusion and exclusion
conditions of the Cyberball
task.
Social exclusion - key findings (2)
DMPFC activity during social exclusion
Association between friendship at 14 and need satisfaction
scores across both inclusion and exclusion
Social exclusion - key findings (3)
Early adolescent friendships are crucial in
shaping resilience and emotional responses in
later life.
High-quality friendships may buffer the
adverse effects of childhood experiences,
promoting emotional well-being.
Social isolation - key findings (1)
Default mode network (DMN).
> Self-rumination and internal
generation of thoughts.
Compensatory mechanism.
Executive control netwrok (ECN).
Compromised executive control.
Impaired social perception
skills
Visual attention network (VAN).
Monitor of surroundings for
perceived social threads.
Hypervigilance and
attentional bias.
Affective processing network.
> Processing of negative social
cues.
< Affective responsiveness to
positive social interactions.
Social isolation - key findings (2)
High-perceived social group.
Higher fat mass percentage.
Lower diet quality.
Increased maladaptive eating behaviors.
Increased reward-based eating.
Uncontrolled eating.
Poorer mental health
Food vs. noonfood.
HPI group: greater food cue reactivity in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL).
Brain reactivity mediated the association between perceived isolation and food cravings,
reward-based eating, and overall maladaptive eating behaviors.
Sweet food vs. nonfood.
HPI group: greater food cue reactivity in the IPL, inferior frontal gyrus, and lateral
occipital cortex.
Brain reactivity mediated the association between perceived isolation and body fat mass
percentage, food cravings, reward-based eating, and overall maladaptive eating
behaviors.
Savory food vs. nonfood.
HPI group: less food cue reactivity in the central precuneus and dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex
Brain reactivity mediated the association between perceived isolation and positive affect
Brain reactivity to all foods was associated with maladaptive eating
behaviors and mental health outcomes
Empathy - key findings (1)
Prosody was significant - More suffering is perceived
when complaining versus
neutral
Accent was marginally significant - “out-group” speakers
suffering more than “in-
group” speakers overall
Complaining - ^ activation in superior temporal
cortex, auditory cortices, anterior
insula, amygdala,
* mPFC, vACC and precuneas clusters
had reductions in deactivation
Empathy - key findings (2)
- In-group> out-group
- ^ activation in primary sensory and
primary motor and association
cortex - Out-group> in-group
- ^ activation in bilateral auditory
cortex, anterior superior temporal
sulcus, amygdala - Reduced deactivation in the mPFC
and PCC - = heightened sense of sensory
processing
Prejudice - key findings (1)
- test game reduced bias by aligning neural responses to ingroup and outgroup
- no significant difference between ingroup and outgroup in P3 (ERP analysis) suggesting no initial attentional bias
- eLPP (emotional engagement) - test game reduced outgroup bias leading to equal emotional responses for both groups.
- ILPP (sustained emotional processing) - test game increased empathy and attention for outgroup individuals
the outgroup effect (lower neural response to the pain of the outgroup vs ingroup individuals was not present for players of the test game.
Prejudice - key findings (2)
- Test game players exhibited a heightened sense of control when helping out-group members compared to not helping.
- empathy-related brain activity
- for test game players no difference between choosing ingroup and outgroup members.
- control game players displayed higher power when selecting outgroup members compared to ingroup members - indicates greater cognitive conflict.
- significant interaction between pair and group with increased activity during outgroup vs ingroup visualizations in control players suggesting heightened conflict.
Reduced bias - game intervention led to similar neural responses for ingroup and outgroup members, suggesting reduced prejudice.
Enhanced empathy - Increased empathy-related brain activity towards outgroup members, indicating greater emotional engagement.
