Intentions Of Others Research Articles

Structural and functional alterations in different types of delusions across schizophrenia spectrum: A systematic review.

Despite the high clinical role of delusions as a transnosological psychopathological phenomenon, the number of experimental studies on the different types of delusions across schizophrenia spectrum is still relatively small, and their results are somehow inconsistent. We aimed to understand the current state of knowledge regarding the structural and functional brain alterations in delusions to determine whether particular types of delusions are associated with specific brain changes and to identify common alterations underlying the formation and persistence of delusions regardless of their content. For this systematic review, we followed PRISMA guidelines to search in PubMed for English papers published between 1953 and September 30, 2023. The initial inclusion criteria for screening purposes were articles that investigated delusions or subclinical delusional beliefs in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, high clinical or genetic risk for schizophrenia using fMRI, sMRI or/and dwMRI methods. Exclusion criteria during the screening phase were articles that investigated lesion-induced or substance-induced delusions, delusions in Alzheimer's disease and other neurocognitive disorders, single case studies and non-human studies. The publication metadata were uploaded to the web-tool for working on systematic reviews, Rayyan. For each of the studies, a table was filled out with detailed information. We found 1752 records, of which 95 full-text documents were reviewed and included in the current paper. Both nonspecific and particular types of delusions were associated with widespread structural and functional alterations. The most prominent areas affected across all types of delusions were the superior temporal cortex (predominantly left language processing areas), anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex and insula. The most reproducible findings in paranoia may be alterations in the functioning of the amygdala and its interactions with other regions. Somatic delusions and delusional infestation were mostly characterized by alterations in the insula and thalamus. The data are ambiguous; however, in general the predictive processing framework seems to be the most widely accepted approach to explaining different types of delusions. Aberrant prediction errors signaling during processing of social, self-generated and sensory information may lead to inaccuracies in assessing the intentions of others, self-relevancy of ambiguous stimuli, misattribution of self-generated actions and unusual sensations, which could provoke delusional ideation with persecutory, reference, control and somatic content correspondingly. However, currently available data are still insufficient to draw conclusions about the specific biological mechanisms of predictive coding account of delusions. Thus, further studies exploring more homogeneous groups and interaction of diagnoses by types of delusions are needed. There are also some limitations in this review. Studies that investigate delusions induced by lesions, substance abuse or neurodegeneration and studies using modalities other than fMRI, sMRI or dwMRI were not included in the review. Due to the relatively small number of publications, we systematized them based on a certain type of delusions, while the results could also be affected by the diagnosis of patients, the presence and type of therapy, illness duration etc.

Contingency and Synchrony: Interactional Pathways Toward Attentional Control and Intentional Communication

In this article we examine how contingency and synchrony during infant–caregiver interactions help children learn to pay attention to objects and how this, in turn, affects their ability to direct caregivers’ attention and to track communicative intentions in others. First, we present evidence that, early in life, child–caregiver interactions are asymmetric. Caregivers dynamically and contingently adapt to their child more than the other way around, providing higher-order semantic and contextual cues during attention episodes, which facilitate the development of specialized and integrated attentional brain networks in the infant brain. Then, we describe how social contingency also facilitates the child's development of predictive models and, through that, goal-directed behavior. Finally, we discuss how contingency and synchrony of brain and behavior can drive children's ability to direct their caregivers’ attention voluntarily and how this, in turn, paves the way for intentional communication.

‘The mirror of the soul?’ Inferring sadness in the eyes

The eyes are widely regarded as the mirror of the soul, providing reliable nonverbal information about drives, feelings, and intentions of others. However, it is unclear how accurate emotion recognition is when only the eyes are visible and whether inferring of emotions is altered across healthy adulthood. To fill this gap, the present piece of research was directed at comparing the ability to infer basic emotions in two groups of typically developing females that differed in age. We set a focus on females seeking group homogeneity. In a face-to-face study, in a two-alternative forced choice paradigm (2AFC), participants had to indicate emotions for faces covered by masks. The outcome reveals that although the recognition pattern is similar in both groups, inferring sadness in the eyes substantially improves with age. Inference of sadness is not only more accurate and less variable in older participants, but also positively correlates with age from early through mid-adulthood. Moreover, reading sadness (and anger) is more challenging in the eyes of male posers. A possible impact of poser gender and cultural background, both in expressing and inferring sadness in the eyes, is highlighted.

Life narratives in the context of war trauma

The article is devoted to the analysis of life narratives in the context of war trauma. One of the most important tasks of social cognition is to predict the intentions of others towards us and people we care about, this information is best conveyed by a person's moral character, not sociability, and it is also important to predict the probability that a person will do what he is going to do, especially as it relates to the trauma of war and suicidal intentions common in our time. However, we assume that sociability and memories of the self before the war or before the traumatic event determine how effectively a person uses his skills to support his moral or immoral intentions, in fact this information is important from the point of view of adaptation. The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of life narratives, in particular those determined by morality, positive or negative attitude towards oneself in the context of war trauma. The objectives of the study are to define the concept of moral trauma, its connection with positive or negative self-attitude, PTSD, autobiographical memories of the events preceding the trauma, including the war in general. Research results: A positive attitude towards morality promotes the emergence of such phenomena as mutual altruism, encouraging cooperation for the common good. A negative attitude toward immorality promotes phenomena such as punishment, discouraging destructive behavior such as cheating, stealing, and free-riding. Therefore, it is critical to determine whether the influence of moral traits on liking and positive attitudes toward self and others is dominant and how it is related to positive autobiographical memories and life narratives, particularly in wartime, when immoral and moral actions are often closely related. and moral trauma has become a common phenomenon not only for the military, but also for civilians in Ukraine.

Intertwined Dialogues of Peace and Forgiveness in Uncle Tom's Cabin

Crimes and peace are interdependent yet paradoxical to each other. The absence of crime can affect peace, accuracy and vice versa. This two-sided paradox can in fact be reconciled through forgiveness as a door to wider freedom. In Uncle Tom's Cabin novel, Tom forgives Legree, Sambo, and Quimbo who tortured him to death. Tom does not avenge violence with violence but with forgiveness. When Tom almost died, Legree did not care about his condition. In reverse, Sambo and Quimbo were impressed by Tom's heart and turned to take care of him. Tom's forgiveness shows ethical intention of others as in Levinas's thought, promise of peace and wider freedom in the sense of Ricoeur, and possibility of the heterogeneity of everyday life according to de Certeau. Tom's forgiveness at once shows everyone, no matter how small he is, can forgive others. This allows further reconciliation in a reciprocal way. Circle of violence can be cut off by forgiveness that heals others. Briefly, Tom is a reflection of peace in the form of forgiveness. Forgiveness means healing others, widening the circle of freedom of others, and as a promise of peace. Forgiveness can open itself up to reconciliation by promising freedom for a new life.

Neurocomputational mechanisms involved in adaptation to fluctuating intentions of others

Humans frequently interact with agents whose intentions can fluctuate between competition and cooperation over time. It is unclear how the brain adapts to fluctuating intentions of others when the nature of the interactions (to cooperate or compete) is not explicitly and truthfully signaled. Here, we use model-based fMRI and a task in which participants thought they were playing with another player. In fact, they played with an algorithm that alternated without signaling between cooperative and competitive strategies. We show that a neurocomputational mechanism with arbitration between competitive and cooperative experts outperforms other learning models in predicting choice behavior. At the brain level, the fMRI results show that the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex track the difference of reliability between these experts. When attributing competitive intentions, we find increased coupling between these regions and a network that distinguishes prediction errors related to competition and cooperation. These findings provide a neurocomputational account of how the brain arbitrates dynamically between cooperative and competitive intentions when making adaptive social decisions.

Intrinsic Mechanisms of Facial Expression Recognition Defects in Children with Autism

The difficulty of facial expression recognition in autistic children mainly includes the inability to accurately understand the emotions and intentions of others, and shows the lack of facial expression response in social interaction. This defect has caused problems with their adaptation and understanding of others in social communication. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed about the intrinsic mechanism of facial expression recognition defects in children with autism. Children with autism may lack the development of psychological theory, causing them to correctly interpret and understand facial expressions with emotional[1]. Neurobiological factors may influence the areas of facial expression processing in the brain of autistic children, leading to their abnormalities in the transmission of neural circuits. In addition, children with autism may have abnormalities in brain function, making it difficult for them to effectively process and interpret information about facial expressions. Therefore, it is very important to further investigate the intrinsic mechanism of facial expression recognition defects in autistic children and the development of related treatments, which can help to improve the social communication ability and improve their quality of life of autistic children.

Level of social adaptation in children with down syndrome depending on verbal communication ability

Down syndrome, like other syndromes associated with mental pathology that occur and develop in childhood and/or adolescence, often prevent the normal adaptation of the individual in society. Children with Down syndrome are often anxious, timid, misunderstand the intentions of others, and therefore misinterpret them and react inappropriately; social skills in such children are often underdeveloped. Detachment from peers and social isolation can reduce the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for children with Down syndrome and deepen cognitive and affective deficits in children with this disease. The aim of the study was to determine the level of social adaptation depending on the ability to verbal communication in children with Down syndrome. The research was carried out on the basis of the National Medical Center of ZOR, 97 children with Down's syndrome were thoroughly examined. The patients were divided into two groups according to the criterion of the ability to verbal communication: group 1 (G1) included 77 children capable of verbal communication, group 2 (G2) — 20 children who do not speak. As a result of the research, the level of social adaptation was determined depending on the ability to verbal communication in children with Down syndrome. Both in G1 and in G2, a normal level of adaptability, emotional comfort and manageability was revealed, which generally indicates a feeling of inner peace in a familiar environment and a high level of satisfaction with one's own microsocial environment. In G1 and G2, there was a decrease in the indicators of maladjustment, self-rejection, rejection of others, emotional discomfort, which can be interpreted as a decrease in the level of criticism of both oneself and others in both groups, regardless of the ability to speak. In G1, significantly higher levels of self-acceptance and internal control were found, which indicates higher self-esteem and the ability to independently solve difficult life situations in children with Down syndrome who are able to speak. In G2, a significant decrease in indicators of external control and escapism was established, which may be the result of a more gentle and careful attitude towards children with Down syndrome who are not capable of verbal communication. Key words: Down syndrome, social adaptation, social anxiety, psychocorrection, children psychiatry

Autism and intention attribution test: a non-verbal evaluation with comic strips

BackgroundDespite autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mentalization being two words often associated in the literature, the assessment of this ability in individuals with ASD in the clinical setting is still limited. Indeed, there are no standardized Theory of Mind (ToM) tests that are adaptable to different cognitive profiles, such as individuals with language poverty, and intellectual or memory impairments. This study proposes a non-verbal test (Intentions Attribution-Comic Strip Test; IA-CST) to evaluate the ability to infer the intentions of others, a basic component of ToM, in the clinical setting.MethodIn Study 1, the test was administered to 261 healthy individuals and we performed structural validation using Exploratory Graph Analysis. In Study 2, the final version of the test was administered to 32 individuals with ASD to assess the known group validity of the measure by comparing their scores with a sample of IQ-matched controls. Moreover, we performed logistic regression and ROC curve to preliminarily assess the diagnostic performance of the IA-CST.ResultsThe IA-CST resulted in a 3-dimension measure with good structural stability. Group comparison indicated that the ASD group shows significantly lower performance in intention attribution but not in inferring causal consequences. The test demonstrated known group validity and that, preliminarily, it is suitable for implementation within the clinical practice.ConclusionsThe results support the IA-CST as a valid non-verbal task for evaluating intentions attribution in the clinical setting. Difficulties in ToM are early and relevant in ASD, so assessing these aspects is valuable for structuring individualized and evidence-based interventions.

Interaction Patterns of Motorists and Cyclists at Intersections: Insight from a Vehicle–Bicycle Simulator Study

At intersections, road users need to comprehend the intentions of others while also implicitly expressing their own intentions using dynamic information. Identifying patterns of this implicit communication between human drivers and vulnerable road users (VRUs) at intersections could enhance automated driving functions (ADFs), enabling more human-like communication with VRUs. To this end, we conducted a coupled vehicle–bicycle simulator study to investigate interactions between right-turning motorists and crossing cyclists. This involved 34 participants (17 pairs of motorists and cyclists) encountering each other in a virtual intersection. The analysis focused on identifying interaction patterns between motorists and cyclists, specifically aiming to discern which patterns were more likely to be accepted by both parties. We found that in CM (vehicles overtaking), the post-encroachment time (PET) and the average speed of vehicles were higher than in the other two interaction patterns: C (bicycles always in front) and CMC (bicycles overtake). However, subjective ratings indicated that CM was viewed as more critical and less cooperative. Furthermore, this study unveiled the influence of crossing order and overtaking position on subjective ratings through ordered logistic regressions, suggesting that earlier overtaking could improve cyclists’ acceptance of the interaction. These findings may contribute to the optimization of communication strategies for ADF, thereby ensuring safety in interactions with VRUs.

Anodal tDCS over TPJ reduces bidding in Tullock contest: Implications for social decision-making

Contests, as economic, political, and social interactions, can stimulate high levels of effort, but they can also lead to inefficient expenditure of effort (overbidding), resulting in the wastage of social resources. Prior studies have indicated that the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is associated with overbidding and speculating on the intentions of others during contests. This study aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms of the TPJ in overbidding and to examine changes in bidding behavior after modulating TPJ activity using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The experiment randomly allocated participants into three groups, each receiving either anodal stimulation of the LTPJ/RTPJ or sham stimulation. Following the stimulation, the participants engaged in the Tullock rent-seeking game. Our results revealed that participants who received anodal stimulation of the LTPJ and RTPJ significantly reduced their bids compared to the sham group, possibly due to enhanced accuracy in guessing others' strategies or enhanced altruistic preferences. Moreover, our findings suggest that while both the LTPJ and RTPJ are associated with overbidding behavior, anodal tDCS targeting the RTPJ is more effective than stimulation of the LTPJ in decreasing overbidding. The aforementioned revelations offer proof of the neural mechanisms of the TPJ in overbidding and provide fresh substantiation for the neural mechanisms of social behavior.

Multiscale kinematics of action intention

Human motion contains rich contextual information about not only action, but action intention. In two experiments, we investigated whether the multiscale kinematic information that differentiates intentional actions is the same information to which observers attend when asked to observe an actor’s intended movement. To do so, we first recorded an actor’s movement kinematics while performing four different intentional sit-to-stand actions. Analyzing the differences in movement kinematics, we then identified the joints that contributed to differentiating the actions using principal components analysis and multinomial regression. Observers were then shown point-light displays of these movements and given a forced-choice task to select which action the actor intended to complete and were highly accurate at this task. We hypothesized that if perceptual information used to perceive action intention corresponds to the kinematic information that differentiates among the four possible actions, then observers’ gaze should center more on the joints identified in the movement analysis. This hypothesis was supported, suggesting that joint kinematics that differentiate possible actions are the same joint kinematics to which observers attend in order to successfully differentiate movement intentions in others.

Face-Selective Patches in Marmosets Are Involved in Dynamic and Static Facial Expression Processing.

The correct identification of facial expressions is critical for understanding the intention of others during social communication in the daily life of all primates. Here we used ultra-high-field fMRI at 9.4 T to investigate the neural network activated by facial expressions in awake New World common marmosets from both male and female sex, and to determine the effect of facial motions on this network. We further explored how the face-patch network is involved in the processing of facial expressions. Our results show that dynamic and static facial expressions activate face patches in temporal and frontal areas (O, PV, PD, MD, AD, and PL) as well as in the amygdala, with stronger responses for negative faces, also associated with an increase of the respiration rates of the monkey. Processing of dynamic facial expressions involves an extended network recruiting additional regions not known to be part of the face-processing network, suggesting that face motions may facilitate the recognition of facial expressions. We report for the first time in New World marmosets that the perception and identification of changeable facial expressions, vital for social communication, recruit face-selective brain patches also involved in face detection processing and are associated with an increase of arousal.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent research in humans and nonhuman primates has highlighted the importance to correctly recognize and process facial expressions to understand others' emotions in social interactions. The current study focuses on the fMRI responses of emotional facial expressions in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), a New World primate species sharing several similarities of social behavior with humans. Our results reveal that temporal and frontal face patches are involved in both basic face detection and facial expression processing. The specific recruitment of these patches for negative faces associated with an increase of the arousal level show that marmosets process facial expressions of their congener, vital for social communication.

The Neural Secrets of Narration

The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a network of brain regions responsible for active or passive narration and the sharing of experiences. The ability to simulate experiences and use memories to construct hypothetical tales about how people might behave is a fundamental skill in building a social aggregate as it allows us to foreshadow the consequences of our actions and reflect on the intentions of others, simulating their experiences to anticipate their behavior. We can process imaginary situations whose accuracy is a measure of our social skills since the closer the imagination approaches social reality, the better we negotiate our social worlds. The DMN is responsible for these activities that encompass the frontal and parietal structures of the brain along the midline, the lateral and medial temporal lobes, and the lateral parietal cortex. This work reviews the DMN in all its aspects, both in the construction of narrative plots and in the preparation of believable and immersive emotional scenarios, including endocrine outcomes (oxytocin and cortisol).

Action viewing and language in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

The mirror neuron system consists of fronto-parietal regions and responds to both goal-directed action execution and observation. The broader action observation network is specifically involved in observation of actions and is thought to play a role in understanding the goals of the motor act, the intention of others, empathy, and language. Many, but not all, studies have found mirror neuron system or action observation network dysfunction in autism spectrum disorder. The objective of this study was to use observation of a goal-directed action fMRI paradigm to examine the action observation network in autism spectrum disorder and to determine whether fronto-parietal activation is associated with language ability. Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (n = 23) were compared to typically developing adolescents (n = 20), 11-17years. Overall, there were no group differences in activation, however, the autism spectrum group with impaired expressive language (n = 13) had significantly reduced inferior frontal and inferior parietal activation during action viewing. In controls, right supramarginal gyrus activation was associated with higher expressive language; bilateral supramarginal and left pars opercularis activation was associated with better verbal-gesture integration. Results suggest that action-observation network dysfunction may characterize a subgroup of individuals with autism spectrum disorder with expressive language deficits. Therefore, interventions that target this dysfunctional network may improve expressive language in this autism spectrum subgroup. Future treatment studies should individualize therapeutic approaches based on brain-behavior relationships.

Humanizing dehumanization research

This essay contends that contemporary research should pay greater attention to three fundamentally human characteristics of dehumanization. First, we argue that scholars need to better consider and analyze the ideological context of dehumanization, specifically the multiple meanings that diverse cultural conceptions of the human and the dehumanized impart to dehumanizing concepts or attitudes. Second, we urge a greater emphasis on how social relationships influence dehumanization, recognizing that people are entangled in complex and intersecting social identities, relationships, and histories that affect how they respond to the dehumanizing intentions of others. Third, we argue that the institutional context of dehumanization must be investigated and theorized, as dehumanization’s effects are rarely the result of atomized individuals reacting to diffuse dehumanizing rhetoric but rather the result of collective action within more or less formal organizations. These tasks can be accomplished through increased interdisciplinarity, thereby enhancing the insights and applicability of dehumanization research to the numerous forms of conflict, brutality, and extremism that are so frequently associated with dehumanization.

Social engagement revealed by gaze following in third-party observers of simulated social conflict.

Humans and non-human primates can allocate visual attention to areas of high interest in their visual field based on the behaviors of their social partners. Allocation of attention is particularly important for third-party observers of social interactions. By following the gaze of interacting individuals, the observer can obtain information about the mental states, emotions, and intentions of others. We presented three adult monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with videos of simulated social interactions and quantified their eye movements to determine which observed behaviors were most conducive to gaze following. Social interactions were simulated by juxtaposing two videos depicting a threatening and an appeasing individual facing each other, with the timing of the facial and bodily displays adjusted to mimic an exchange of social signals. Socially meaningful facial displays combined with full body movements significantly enhanced the probability of gaze following and joint attention. Despite the synthetic nature of these interactions, the facial and bodily displays of the submissive individual elicited significantly more joint-attention than gaze-following saccades, suggesting a preferential allocation of attention to the recipients of threatening displays. Temporal alignment of gaze following and joint attention to the frames of each video showed numerous clusters of significant increases in the frequency of these saccades. These clusters suggest that some videos contained signals that can induce a quasi-automatic redirection of the observer's attention. However, these saccades occurred only on a fraction of the viewings, and we have documented large inter-individual variations. All viewers produced sequences of joint attention saccades (check-backs) shifting their attention between the two monkeys as though monitoring the simulated emitting-receiving cycle of social signals. These sequences reflect the viewer's interest in monitoring the ongoing exchange of agonistic and affiliative displays. It appears that in macaque monkeys, the scanpaths of third-party observers of simulated social interactions are informed by social-cognitive processes suggestive of mentalizing.

Improvement of Negative Emotion Recognition in Visible Images Enhanced by Thermal Imaging

Facial expressions help in understanding the intentions of others as they are an essential means of communication, revealing human emotions. Recently, thermal imaging has been playing a complementary role in emotion recognition and is considered an alternative to overcome the drawbacks of visible imaging. Notably, a relatively severe recognition error of fear among negative emotions frequently occurs in visible imaging. This study aims to improve the recognition performance of fear by using the visible and thermal images acquired simultaneously. When fear was not recognized in a visible image, we analyzed the causes of misrecognition. We thus found the condition of replacing the image with a thermal image. It improved emotion recognition performance by 4.54% on average, compared to the performance of using only visible images. Finally, we confirmed that the thermal image effectively compensated for the visible image’s shortcomings.

Cooperation dynamics in dynamical networks with history-based decisions.

In many aspects of life on earth, individuals may engage in cooperation with others to contribute towards a goal they may share, which can also ensure self-preservation. In evolutionary game theory, the act of cooperation can be considered as an altruistic act of an individual producing some form of benefit or commodity that can be utilised by others they are associated with, which comes at some personal cost. Under certain conditions, individuals make use of information that they are able to perceive within a group in order to aid with their choices for who they should associate themselves within these cooperative scenarios. However, cooperative individuals can be taken advantage of by opportunistic defectors, which can cause significant disruption to the population. We study a model where the decision to establish interactions with potential partners is based on the opportune integration of the individual's private ability to perceive the intentions of others (private information) and the observation of the population, information that is available to every individual (public information). When public information is restricted to a potential partners current connection count, the population becomes highly cooperative but rather unstable with frequent invasions of cheaters and recoveries of cooperation. However, when public information considers the previous decisions of the individuals (accepted / rejected connections) the population is slightly less cooperative but more stable. Generally, we find that allowing the observation of previous decisions, as part of the available public information, can often lead to more stable but fragmented and less prosperous networks. Our results highlight that the ability to observe previous individual decisions, balanced by individuals personal information, represents an important aspect of the interplay between individual decision-making and the resilience of cooperation in structured populations.

Parenting Styles and Peer Influence as Correlates of Expressive Language Skills among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Introduction: It is more difficult for children with limited communication to understand the intentions of others and to communicate their own needs, feelings, and ideas because of their impaired expressive language skills.
 Objectives: This study investigated parenting styles and the peer-influence as correlates of expressive language skills in children with autism spectrum disorders.
 Methods: Convenient sampling was used to select 30 (male = 22; female = 8; age range 6 – 14 years old) children with an autism spectrum disorder. The instruments used for data collection were tagged Parenting Style Questionnaire, Peer Influence Questionnaire, and Expressive Language Skills Scale. The internal consistency of the Parenting Style Questionnaire, Peer Influence Questionnaire, and Expressive Language Skills Scale were Cronbach's > 0.70, 0.64, and 0.63, respectively. The scale suitability for participants was determined, and it yielded a Cronbach's α of 0.79.
 Results: The findings revealed that the different parenting styles, such as authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful, had a positive relationship with expressive language skills of children with autism spectrum disorder, but the relation was not significant. Moreover, peer influence positively correlated with respondents’ language skills, but it was not significant.
 Conclusions: Based on the findings, it can be conclusively stated that regardless of parenting styles used, there was a positive relationship between respondents’ language skills, but the relationship was not significant. Therefore, further studies must be conducted to determine factors that are likely to contribute significantly to the language skills of children with an autism spectrum disorder.