Article
Neurosciences
Junaid S. Merchant, Diana Alkire, Elizabeth Redcay
Summary: Social interactions are crucial for human development, yet there is limited understanding of their underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the brain response during social interactions in children. The results showed similar neural patterns in the temporal poles during mentalizing and peer interactions, suggesting a neurocognitive link between the two. However, other social brain regions exhibited different responses to interactive peers and abstract characters. These findings highlight the importance of studying social-cognitive processes using interactive paradigms.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Simon Guendelman, Mareike Bayer, Kristin Prehn, Isabel Dziobek
Summary: The study found that observers experienced higher levels of personal distress when facing distressing situations with a partner, especially highly empathetic individuals were more prone to such distress. Engaging in social emotion regulation reduced personal distress in observers at a similar rate as self emotion regulation. FMRI analyses revealed increased brain activation for regulating others' emotions in regions associated with social cognition, which was also linked to lower self-reported stress and decreased physical stress responses. This study highlights the benefits of actively regulating another person's emotions for reducing one's own distress, with the precuneus identified as a crucial node for social emotion regulation.
Article
Neurosciences
Miriam E. Weaverdyck, Mark A. Thornton, Diana Tamir
Summary: The study found that people use stable models of mental states across different individuals and contexts to understand the mental states of others.
Article
Psychiatry
Wladimir Tantchik, Melissa J. Green, Yann Quide, Susanne Erk, Sebastian Mohnke, Carolin Wackerhagen, Nina Romanczuk-Seiferth, Heike Tost, Kristina Schwarz, Carolin Moessnang, Danilo Bzdok, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas Heinz, Henrik Walter
Summary: This study aimed to replicate previous findings of mentalizing impairment and altered neural responses in schizophrenia, and to investigate its association with domain-general cognitive impairment. The results showed no significant group differences in mentalizing network activation between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Verbal intelligence was found to be positively associated with activation of the medial prefrontal cortex, a key region of the mentalizing network. This suggests that verbal intelligence is an important confounding variable in group comparisons and should be considered in future studies on the neural correlates of mentalizing dysfunction in schizophrenia.
SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH
(2023)
Review
Psychology
Matthias Schurz, Joaquim Radua, Matthias G. Tholen, Lara Maliske, Daniel S. Margulies, Rogier B. Mars, Jerome Sallet, Philipp Kanske
Summary: This study integrates evidence of brain activation, brain organization, and behavior into a coherent model of social-cognitive processes, finding a multilevel model for understanding others' mental states from neuroimaging data. The model involves cognitive, affective, and combined functions, ultimately explained by an underlying principal gradient.
PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Cheryl L. Grady, Jenny R. Rieck, Giulia Baracchini, Brennan Desouza
Summary: This study examines the associations between resting BOLD variability, cognitive/socioemotional scores, and chronotype in a sample of adults. The results show positive correlations between resting BOLD variability and positive socioemotional scores, as well as morning chronotype, but a negative correlation with negative emotional scores. Unexpectedly, a negative correlation is found between BOLD variability and fluid cognition.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Stephanie N. L. Schmidt, Joachim Hass, Peter Kirsch, Daniela Mier
Summary: The study used fMRI to show that different social-cognitive processes share a neural basis in the human brain, supporting the theory of embodied simulation.
Article
Neurosciences
Sadjad Sadeghi, Stephanie N. L. Schmidt, Daniela Mier, Joachim Hass
Summary: This study used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to determine the effective connectivity of the human mirror neuron system (MNS) during different social cognition tasks. The results showed that there were effective connections from the superior temporal sulcus (STS) to the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and Brodmann area 44 (BA44) in all social cognition processes. Additional mutual connections were found in the imitation task.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Jonas P. Nitschke, Jennifer A. Bartz
Summary: Empathy is crucial in our social-emotional experience, and there has been growing interest in the effects of acute stress on empathy. This review provides a comprehensive overview of emerging patterns and gaps in the literature. It shows that acute stress can lead to stress contagion in affective empathy, but the effects vary depending on contextual factors. It also finds that acute stress may differentially affect cognitive empathy for men and women, especially in more complex empathy tasks.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Giusy Olivito, Michela Lupo, Libera Siciliano, Andrea Gragnani, Marco Saettoni, Corinna Pancheri, Matteo Panfili, Fabiana Pignatelli, Roberto Delle Chiaie, Maria Leggio
Summary: This study aims to investigate the relationship between theory of mind (ToM) deficits in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and cerebellar function. The results showed that BD1 patients were compromised in cognitive and advanced components of ToM, while BD2 patients had more widespread compromise involving affective and automatic components. Different patterns of structural abnormalities may account for the different ToM performances between BD1 and BD2.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Yu-Lien Huang, Tzu-Ting Chen, Isabel Dziobek, Huai-Hsuan Tseng
Summary: The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition-Taiwanese version (MASC-TW), a sensitive video-based test used to assess mentalizing skills. The results showed that MASC-TW is a reliable and valid tool for assessing mentalizing abilities in a Taiwanese population.
Article
Neurosciences
Michele Morningstar, Whitney Mattson, Eric E. Nelson
Summary: Adolescence is a critical period for the maturation of neural networks involved in social information processing. This study examined the longitudinal changes in neural response to vocal expressions of emotion in youth aged 8 to 19 years. The results showed that activation in certain brain regions decreased over time, suggesting a focalization of response. Activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was positively associated with age but remained stable across timepoints. In addition, the activation pattern in the right temporo-parietal junction varied as a function of age, indicating ongoing specialization of function. Decreased activation in specific brain regions was associated with better emotion recognition accuracy. These findings highlight the importance of specialization in social cognitive networks for the development of vocal emotion recognition skills during adolescence.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Tzipporah P. Dang, Bradley D. Mattan, Denise M. Barth, Grace Handley, Jasmin Cloutier, Jennifer T. Kubota
Summary: Recordings of interracial police officer-civilian interactions are now widely available and individuals may be more inclined to understand these dynamics when perceiving injustice towards communities that experience disproportionate policing. Two studies were conducted to explore this issue. The fMRI study found that White participants showed greater neural activity in regions supporting social cognition when viewing videos of Black civilians involved in more aggressive police encounters. Additionally, participants in the fMRI study rated officers as more aggressive and their use of force as less legitimate when the civilian was Black. In study 2, participants who had not viewed the videos also reported a belief that police are generally more unjustly aggressive towards Black civilians compared to White civilians. These findings shed light on how perceptions of conflict and injustice influence social cognitive engagement when observing arrests by White police officers of Black and White individuals.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Francois Quesque, Antoine Coutrot, Sharon Cox, Leonardo Cruz de Souza, Sandra Baez, Juan Felipe Cardona, Hannah Mulet-Perreault, Emma Flanagan, Alejandra Neely-Prado, Maria Florencia Clarens, Luciana Cassimiro, Gada Musa, Jennifer Kemp, Anne Botzung, Nathalie Philippi, Maura Cosseddu, Catalina Trujillo-Llano, Johan Sebastian Grisales-Cardenas, Sol Fittipaldi, Nahuel Magrath Guimet, Ismael Luis Calandri, Lucia Crivelli, Lucas Sedeno, Adolfo M. Garcia, Fermin Moreno, Begona Indakoetxea, Alberto Benussi, Millena Vieira Brandao Moura, Hernando Santamaria-Garcia, Diana Matallana, Galina Pryanishnikova, Anna Morozova, Olga Iakovleva, Nadezda Veryugina, Oleg Levin, Lina Zhao, Junhua Liang, Thomas Duning, Thibaud Lebouvier, Florence Pasquier, David Huepe, Myriam Barandiaran, Andreas Johnen, Elena Lyashenko, Ricardo F. Allegri, Barbara Borroni, Frederic Blanc, Fen Wang, Monica Sanches Yassuda, Patricia Lillo, Antonio Lucio Teixeira, Paulo Caramelli, Carol Hudon, Andrea Slachevsky, Agustin Ibanez, Michael Hornberger, Maxime Bertoux
Summary: Measures of social cognition are essential in neuropsychology for diagnoses and rehabilitation. International collaborations help tackle global mental health challenges, but differences between countries should not be ignored.
Article
Psychology, Biological
John P. Powers, Nadia Kako, Daniel N. McIntosh, Kateri McRae
Summary: This study aims to investigate how cognitive context can impact emotion regulation through cognitive reappraisal. By introducing an additional mentalizing instruction, we found that the mentalizing instruction did not directly affect the performance of reappraisal, but it interacted with reappraisal at the neural level. The results suggest that mentalizing and reappraisal do engage shared neurocognitive resources, but this overlap may lead to competition rather than facilitation of emotion regulation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Meghan L. Meyer, Lila Davachi, Kevin N. Ochsner, Matthew D. Lieberman
Article
Clinical Neurology
Lily A. Brown, Katherine S. Young, Philippe R. Goldin, Jared B. Torre, Lisa J. Burklund, Carolyn D. Davies, Andrea N. Niles, Matthew D. Lieberman, Darby E. Saxbe, Michelle G. Craske
PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH-NEUROIMAGING
(2019)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Benjamin A. Tabak, Adam R. Teed, Elizabeth Castle, Janine M. Dutcher, Meghan L. Meyer, Ronnie Bryan, Michael R. Irwin, Matthew D. Lieberman, Naomi I. Eisenberger
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
(2019)
Article
Immunology
Mona Moieni, Michael R. Irwin, Teresa E. Seeman, Theodore F. Robles, Matthew D. Lieberman, Elizabeth C. Breen, Stephanie Okimoto, Clara Lengacher, Jesusa M. G. Arevalo, Richard Olmstea, Steven W. Cole, Naomi I. Eisenberger
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY
(2020)
Article
Neurosciences
Benjamin A. Tabak, Katherine S. Young, Jared B. Torre, Baldwin M. Way, Lisa J. Burklund, Naomi I. Eisenberger, Matthew D. Lieberman, Michelle G. Craske
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2020)
Article
Neurosciences
Miriam E. Weaverdyck, Matthew D. Lieberman, Carolyn Parkinson
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2020)
Article
Psychology
Matthew D. Lieberman
Summary: Subjective construal, as a personal understanding of situations and its cognitive processes, has been explored in this review. The visual, semantic, and psychological forms of subjective construal are analyzed, along with their association with specific brain regions. The research also suggests that individuals with similar subjective construals exhibit greater neural synchrony in the brain.
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kevin M. Tan, Amy L. Daitch, Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas, Kieran C. R. Fox, Josef Parvizi, Matthew D. Lieberman
Summary: This study directly recorded neuronal activity using electrocorticography to investigate the neural mechanisms of self- and other-mentalizing. The results revealed a common neurocognitive pathway for self- and other-mentalizing, with a complex spatiotemporal gradient of functional specialization within the default mode network and beyond.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ashley L. Binnquist, Stephanie Y. Dolbier, Macrina C. Dieffenbach, Matthew D. Lieberman
Summary: The rise of ideological polarization in the U.S. has led to increased hostility between political parties. Despite the importance of communication and compromise, research shows that people overestimate the negative effects of viewing opposing media, leading to a reluctance to engage in cross-ideological communication (CIC). Additionally, a geographic divide and online extremism fueled by social media make CIC even more challenging. However, this study demonstrates that online video-chat platforms like Zoom can effectively promote CIC among polarized individuals and provide a controlled setting for studying it. The results indicate that face-to-face CIC is generally positive and beneficial, with private conversations having greater effects than public interactions. Researchers studying ideological conflict can use similar Zoom paradigms to bring together diverse individuals in controlled lab settings.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Christina F. Sandman, Katherine S. Young, Lisa J. Burklund, Darby E. Saxbe, Matthew D. Lieberman, Michelle G. Craske
BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH AND THERAPY
(2020)
Correction
Psychology, Clinical
Amy R. Sewart, Andrea N. Niles, Lisa J. Burklund, Darby E. Saxbe, Matthew D. Lieberman, Michelle G. Craske
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Amy R. Sewart, Andrea N. Niles, Lisa J. Burklund, Darby E. Saxbe, Matthew D. Lieberman, Michelle G. Craske
Meeting Abstract
Psychiatry
Mona Moieni, Michael R. Irwin, Teresa E. Seeman, Theodore F. Robles, Matthew D. Lieberman, Elizabeth C. Breen, Stephanie Okimoto, Clara Lengacher, Steven W. Cole, Naomi I. Eisenberger
PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE
(2019)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Matthew D. Lieberman
COGNITION & EMOTION
(2019)
Article
Psychology, Social
Shannon M. Burns, Lianne N. Barnes, Munqith M. Dagher, J. Douglas Storey, Ian A. McCulloh, Emily B. Falk, Matthew D. Lieberman
JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2019)
Article
Neurosciences
Jose Sanchez-Bornot, Roberto C. Sotero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Ozguer Simsek, Damien Coyle
Summary: This study proposes a multi-penalized state-space model for analyzing unobserved dynamics, using a data-driven regularization method. Novel algorithms are developed to solve the model, and a cross-validation method is introduced to evaluate regularization parameters. The effectiveness of this method is validated through simulations and real data analysis, enabling a more accurate exploration of cognitive brain functions.