Paying attention to social meaning: an FMRI study.

To review advances in structural and functional MRI studies regarding the neural underpinnings of social atypicalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to the hypothesis that the social brain network, which includes brain regions, such as the amygdala and superior temporal sulcus, may be atypical in ASD, recent structural MRI studies have identified regional gray matter volume abnormalities in the social brain regions in ASD groups compared with the typically developing groups. Studies evaluating gray matter volume covariance and white matter volume/integrity suggested network-level abnormalities associated with the social brain regions. Recent functional MRI studies assessing resting-state neural activity showed reduced functional connectivity among the social brain regions in individuals with ASD compared with typically developing groups. Similarly, task-based functional MRI studies recently revealed a reduction in regional activity and intraregional functional coupling in the social brain regions during the processing of social stimuli in individuals with ASD. These structural and functional MRI studies provide supportive evidence for the hypothesis that an atypical social brain network underlies behavioral social problems in ASD.

Social cognitive dysfunction and altered functional connectivity and small-world properties of the social brain network in idiopathic generalized epilepsy.

Numerous previous studies have classified brain regions related to social processing into the "social brain" regions. Recent genetic studies showed that gene expression has a crucial effect on both brain functions and behavioral social performance. However, studies still lack a clear understanding of the organization of the social gene expression (SocGene) network. This study aimed to distinguish the difference between the SocGene network and the social brain network (SBN) and further explored their deficits in schizophrenia (SCZ) patients. The SocGene network was constructed by generating the gene expression maps of six social neuropeptide receptors from the Allen Human Brain Atlas. Then, we recruited a general population sample of 37 participants and a clinical sample including 26 SCZ and 25 Healthy controls (HCs) successively to construct the resting-state SocGene and SBN at the individual level. The integration (global efficiency, GE) and segregation (local efficiency, LE) of these brain networks were calculated using the graphic analysis. Results showed that the GE and LE of the SocGene network were significantly higher than those of the SBN in both two cohorts. The SCZ patients showed significantly diminished LE of the two brain networks compared to HCs, especially in the SocGene network. These findings implied that the SocGene network strengthened the integration and segregation compared to the SBN. SCZ patients mainly exhibited deficits in the segregation of these two brain networks. The current findings provide a new perspective on combining genetic expression and brain function in understanding the psychopathology of social functioning.

Humans need meaningful social interactions, but little is known about the consequences of not having them. We examined meaningful social interactions and the lack thereof in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) or social phobia (SP) and compared them to a control group (CG). Using event-sampling methodology, we sampled participants’ everyday social behavior 6 times per day for 1 week in participants’ natural environment. We investigated the quality and the proportion of meaningful social interactions (when they had meaningful social interactions) and degree of wishing for and avoidance of meaningful social interactions (when they did not have meaningful social interactions). Groups differed on the quality and avoidance of meaningful social interactions: Participants with MDD and SP reported perceiving their meaningful social interactions as lower quality (in terms of subjective meaningfulness) than the CG, with SP patients reporting even lower quality than the MDD patients. Further, both MDD and SP patients reported avoiding meaningful social interactions significantly more often than the CG. Although the proportion of meaningful social interactions was similar in all groups, the subjective quality of meaningful social interactions was perceived to be lower in MDD and SP patients. Future research might further identify what variables influenced the reinforcement of the MDD and SP patients so that they engaged in the same number of meaningful social interactions even though the quality of their meaningful social interactions was lower. Increasing awareness of what happens when patients do or do not have meaningful social interactions will help elucidate a potentially exacerbating or maintaining factor of the disorders.

Internal (neuronal) representations in the brain are modified by our experiences, and this phenomenon is not unique to sensory and motor systems. Here, we show that different impressions obtained through social interaction with a variety of agents uniquely modulate activity of dorsal and ventral pathways of the brain network that mediates human social behavior.We scanned brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 16 healthy volunteers when they performed a simple matching-pennies game with a human, human-like android, mechanical robot, interactive robot, and a computer. Before playing this game in the scanner, participants experienced social interactions with each opponent separately and scored their initial impressions using two questionnaires.We found that the participants perceived opponents in two mental dimensions: one represented “mind-holderness” in which participants attributed anthropomorphic impressions to some of the opponents that had mental functions, while the other dimension represented “mind-readerness” in which participants characterized opponents as intelligent. Interestingly, this “mind-readerness” dimension correlated to participants frequently changing their game tactic to prevent opponents from envisioning their strategy, and this was corroborated by increased entropy during the game. We also found that the two factors separately modulated activity in distinct social brain regions. Specifically, mind-holderness modulated activity in the dorsal aspect of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal and posterior paracingulate cortices, while mind-readerness modulated activity in the ventral aspect of TPJ and the temporal pole.These results clearly demonstrate that activity in social brain networks is modulated through pre-scanning experiences of social interaction with a variety of agents. Furthermore, our findings elucidated the existence of two distinct functional networks in the social human brain. Social interaction with anthropomorphic or intelligent-looking agents may distinctly shape the internal representation of our social brain, which may in turn determine how we behave for various agents that we encounter in our society.

Eye-contact modifies how we perceive emotions and modulates activity in the social brain network. Here, using fMRI, we demonstrate that adding a fixation cross in the eye region of dynamic facial emotional stimuli significantly increases activation in the social brain of healthy, neurotypical participants when compared with activation for the exact same stimuli observed in a free-viewing mode. In addition, using PPI analysis, we show that the degree of amygdala connectivity with the rest of the brain is enhanced for the constrained view for all emotions tested except for fear, and that anxiety and alexithymia modulate the strength of amygdala connectivity for each emotion differently. Finally, we show that autistic traits have opposite effects on amygdala connectivity for fearful and angry emotional expressions, suggesting that these emotions should be treated separately in studies investigating facial emotion processing.

Our article provides insights into the acute effects of exercise on the inhibition of emotional information in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Ludyga et al., 2024) and Huang et al. highlight different questions that stimulate the discussion of exercise-induced effects in this target group. One important question relates to the heterogeneous profiles of ASD, which increase the likeliness of individual responses to an exercise session. We addressed this question in a subanalysis, which showed that only 3 of 30 participants had an improvement in accuracy on happy Go trials following exercise, whereas null and negative effects were found in 9 and 18 participants, respectively. This supports the lack of any detrimental effects in a smaller proportion of the sample, which was characterized by a tendency towards higher baseline performance on the emotional Go/NoGo task. Based on these findings, teachers and practitioners should be sensitized that interventions including an exercise component can temporarily aggravate difficulties in the processing of emotional information, which may also affect social interaction. This highlights the need to consider the level and type of social interaction as key elements in the design of exercise interventions. However, we have only a limited understanding on whether these elements play a similar role across different exercise types and intensities and if exercise characteristics interact with difficulties in the processing of social information. Evidence from participants without an ASD diagnosis links an increasing parasympathetic withdrawal, which is more pronounced during exercise at higher intensity, with a decrease in the ability to process and recognize emotions (Quintana et al., 2012). Independent from intensity, it remains a matter of debate whether the perception of exercise as stress or unpleasant experience may complicate the processing of social information. While investigating the acute effects of exercise enhances our understanding of the interplay of the physiological state and social cognition, Huang et al. raise the question how immediate changes relate to long-term effects. In a conceptual model, we proposed that exercise can influence aspects of social cognition by acting on pathways that evolved to deal with complex social systems (Ludyga et al., 2022). Specifically, regular exercise can promote autonomic balance and act on social brain networks, which in turn can translate into better social-cognitive abilities. Evidence in support of this model has mainly been drawn from endurance exercise. We also prescribed this type of exercise in our study and negative effects for the processing of facial emotions do not exclude a different long-term response. For example, we previously found that coordinative demands during acute exercise can cancel benefits in executive function in children with ADHD (Ludyga et al., 2017), whereas meta-analytical findings have reported long-term improvements in this domain across different exercise types (L iang et al., 2021). Despite the overlap between executive function and social cognition, research on exercise-induced cognitive effects has rarely considered the latter. For children with ASD in particular, future research investigating the effects of different exercise programs on social cognition is necessary to gauge their potential for therapeutic approaches.

This thesis broadens current understanding of how location-based games can promote meaningful social interaction in citizens' own neighbourhoods. It investigates social cohesion and the role of social interaction to its promotion, delves into which requirements users have for playing in their neighbourhood and with its citizens, and takes a technical perspective into how this type of games should be designed to be successful at triggering interaction in public space. From this understanding, which stems from adolescents and adults from Rotterdam and The Hague, NL, a specific design and prototype of a location-based game is proposed and tested. This thesis addresses several gaps found in the current body of knowledge. On the one hand, meaningful interactions are person-dependent, can occur in various forms, and their impact on societies is not well understood. On the other hand, it is not well understood how to build location-based games for such aim: it is not known which requirements should be considered, attempts to build location-based games are often a product of in-house development not centred early on around users, no known guidelines exist for meaningful social interaction, and no consensus exists on what to consider when building location-based games from a technical perspective. This thesis offers learnings on how to best design location-based games to promote interaction that matters to local communities. It firstly offers an overview of social cohesion and how multiple factors and actors have the power to influence local communities. It then argues that meaningful social interaction bears the power to break down stereotypes and prejudice, empowers people's agencies to act, has a positive impact on cohesion, emerges at people's own pace, and addresses conflict. From this, it dives into the preferences, needs and desires of adolescents and adults to better understand what sorts of interactions are meaningful to them. This thesis explores throughout several case studies the requirements that these target groups have, and advances gameplay dynamics and game activity types that location-based games should implement to be successful at inviting meaningful social interaction in public space. These case studies also research different sorts of interaction that each game activity type invites players to have, and elicit specific game ideas that are particularly tailored around perceived-to-be socially challenging neighbourhoods in The Netherlands. These case studies culminate in the recommendation of several guidelines to be used at different stages of the game design: gameplay requirements, guidelines for meaningful social interaction to occur in the studied groups, and the sorts of game activities that designers should include to invite specific forms of social interaction. This thesis also proposes a systems architecture with key architectural components, to drive consensus and inform on what to consider when building location-based games for this purpose from a technical perspective. The lessons learned that are advanced in this thesis help practitioners design location-based games that are more tailored to what future players want to play, and help researchers understand what it means to design for meaningful social interaction in any public space around the world. Players have distinct preferences with regard to the ways they are exposed to their own neighbourhood, and the forms of interaction they would rather experience. Understanding this, and incorporating such preferences in game design, lead to gameplay experiences that can have a positive effect on societies, as they have the power to promote interaction and positive relationships in local communities. These gameplay experiences invite individuals to come together and have meaningful interactions in a playful way, (re)engage with their own neighbourhood, and be part of their local community.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience - Commentary on a target paper by Andy Clark, “Whatever Next? Predictive Brains, Situated Agents, and the Future of Cognitive Science” in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2012)

Acute opioid withdrawal is associated with increased neural activity in reward-processing centers in healthy men: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Neural activity in the social brain network varies across individuals with different cultural traits and different genetic polymorphisms. It remains unknown whether a specific genetic polymorphism may influence the association between cultural traits and neural activity in the social brain network. We tested whether the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) affects the association between self-construals and neural activity involved in reflection of personal attributes of oneself and a significant other (i.e., mother). Using functional MRI, we scanned Chinese adults with short/short (s/s) or long/long (l/l) variants of the 5-HTTLPR during reflection of personal attributes of oneself and one's mother. We found that, while s/s and l/l genotype groups did not differ significantly in self-construals measured by the Self-Construal Scale, the relationship between self-construal scores and neural responses to reflection of oneself and mother was significantly different between the two genotype groups. Specifically, l/l but not s/s genotype group showed significant association between self-construal scores and activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, bilateral middle frontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, insula and hippocampus during reflection on mental attributes of oneself and mother. Our findings suggest that a specific genetic polymorphism may interact with a cultural trait to shape the neural substrates underlying social cognition.

In communication, who is communicating can be just as important as what is said. However, sender identity in virtual communication is often inferred rather than perceived. Therefore, the present research investigates the brain structures activated by sender identity attributions and evaluative feedback processing during virtual communication. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 32 participants were told that they would receive personality feedback, either sent from another human participant or from a randomly acting computer. In reality, both conditions contained random but counterbalanced feedback, automatically delivered by approving or denying negative, neutral, or positive adjectives. Although physically identical, feedback attributed to the "human" sender activated multiple regions within a "social brain" network, including the superior frontal, medial prefrontal, and orbitofrontal cortex, anterior and posterior parts of the cingulate cortex, and the bilateral insula. Regardless of attributed sender, positive feedback increased responses in the striatum and bilateral amygdalae, while negative compared to neutral feedback elicited stronger insula and somatosensory responses. These results reveal the recruitment of an extensive mentalizing and social brain network by mere sender attributions and the activation of brain structures related to reward and punishment by verbal feedback, demonstrating its embodied processing.

Introduction: Depression is associated with cognitive deficits, social withdrawal and high risk of relapse. Several factors have been proposed as pertaining to increasing the risk of relapse, including a bias in emotional information processing. This study was carried out to examine the relationships between major depressive disorder (MDD), level of depressive symptoms and bias in emotional effortful information processing. Method: Nineteen patients diagnosed with recurrent MDD and 19 matched controls were tested with an experimental visual face-in-the-crowd paradigm including sad, happy and neutral information. The patients were tested on average 9 months after hospitalization. At testing, the patient group showed an overall decrease in depression severity symptom load as measured on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), but with variable symptom load. Results: Reaction time (RT) did not vary between patients and controls in the visual face-in-the-crowd task or on a measure of psychomotor speed. In the patient group, symptom load was related to longer RTs when negative targets were shown against positive distractors. The results revealed a specific bias in response to negative emotional information. Conclusions: Symptom load in the patient group is related to a negative bias in emotional information processing that cannot be explained by psychomotor retardation.

Adolescence is an important time for social development during which friendships become more intimate and complex. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we tested how outcomes for friends are processed on the neural level across adolescence. Participants between 8 and 27years of age were tested twice with a 2-year difference between the first (N=299) and second (N=254) time points. Participants performed a task in which they could win and lose money for themselves and their best friend. Mixed linear models revealed a linear decrease in activity in social brain regions for friend>self over development. These results confirm changes in the social brain network across adolescent development, we further show that individual differences are related to these neural changes.

The characteristics of the cognitive processing of food, body and emotional information in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) are debatable. We reviewed functional magnetic resonance imaging studies to assess whether there were consistent neural basis and networks in the studies to date. Searching PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library and Google Scholar between January 1980 and May 2012, we identified 17 relevant studies. Activation likelihood estimation was used to perform a quantitative meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. For both food stimuli and body stimuli, AN patients showed increased hemodynamic response in the emotion-related regions (frontal, caudate, uncus, insula and temporal) and decreased activation in the parietal region. Although no robust brain activation has been found in response to emotional stimuli, emotion-related neural networks are involved in the processing of food and body stimuli among AN. It suggests that negative emotional arousal is related to cognitive processing bias of food and body stimuli in AN.