Neural Correlates Of Social Cognition Research Articles

A - 44 Social Cognition and its Neuroanatomic Correlates in Frontotemporal Dementia.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) often presents with impaired social cognition in both the behavioral and language variants. Establishing reliable measures and neural correlates of social cognition may aid in staging and monitoring FTD subtypes. Here, we examined group differences in social cognitive measures between FTD subtypes and cortical thickness correlates of social cognition across groups. Participants with behavioral variant FTD (n = 53; bvFTD), semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (n = 32; svPPA) and non-fluent variant PPA (n = 32; nfPPA) were enrolled in the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative (NIFD). In first-visit data, we examined group differences in social cognition measures [Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Revised Social-Monitoring Scale (RSMS), and Behavioral Inhibition/Activation (BIS/BAS) Scales]. We used multivariate regression adjusted for age, total intracranial volume, and CDR global score to explore associations between social cognition and cortical thickness in pre-specified regions. Reduced perspective-taking and sensitivity to socio-emotional expressiveness was observed in early-stage bvFTD and svPPA groups compared to the nfPPA group. Across FTD cohorts, increased perspective-taking was associated with reduced cortical thickness of regions within the salience and default mode networks. Increased empathic concern was associated with increased left inferior parietal cortical thickness. Increased behavioral inhibition was associated with reduced right posterior cingulate cortical thickness. Increased behavioral activation was associated with reduced right pars triangularis cortical thickness. Social cognition is affected in early-stage bvFTD and svPPA to a greater extent than nfPPA. Neural correlates of social cognition are varied and warrant additional study as our findings contrast with previous literature that has typically linked lower perspective-taking with atrophy.

Social cognitive neuroscience in the digital age.

Human interactions are increasingly taking place from a distance through methods of remote interpersonal communication like video chatting and social media. While remote interpersonal communication has existed for millennia-with the first postal system arising in ∼2400 B.C.-accelerated advances in technology and the recent global COVID-19 pandemic have led to a dramatic increase in remote interpersonal communication use in daily life. Remote interpersonal communication presents a challenge to the field of social-cognitive neuroscience, as researchers seek to understand the implications of various types of remote interpersonal communication for the "social brain." The present paper reviews our current understanding of the social-cognitive neural network and summarizes critical differences between the neural correlates of social cognition in remote vs. face-to-face interactions. In particular, empirical and theoretical work is reviewed that highlight disparities in the neural mechanisms of social perception, evaluation of social stimuli, human motivation, evaluation of social reward, and theory of mind. Potential impacts of remote interpersonal communication on the development of the brain's social-cognitive network are also discussed. Finally, this review closes with future directions for research on social-cognitive neuroscience in our digital technology-connected world and outlines a neural model for social cognition in the context of remote interpersonal communication. For the field of social-cognitive neuroscience to advance alongside of the ever-evolving society, it is crucial for researchers to acknowledge the implications and concepts suggested for future research in this review.

What Are the Neural Correlates of Impaired Awareness of Social Cognition and Function in Dementia? A Systematic Review.

Deficits in social cognition and function are characteristic of dementia, commonly accompanied by a loss of awareness of the presence or extent of these deficits. This lack of awareness can impair social relationships, increase patients’ and carers’ burden, and contribute to increased rates of institutionalization. Despite clinical importance, neural correlates of this complex phenomenon remain unclear. We conducted a systematic search of five electronic databases to identify functional and structural neuroimaging studies investigating the neural correlates of impaired awareness of social cognition and function in any dementia type. We rated study quality and conducted a narrative synthesis of the results of the eight studies that met the predefined eligibility criteria. Across these studies, deficits in awareness of impairments in social cognition and function were associated with structural or functional abnormalities in the frontal pole, orbitofrontal cortex, temporal pole, middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and insula. Several identified regions overlap with established neural correlates of social cognition. More research is needed to understand awareness of social cognition and function and how this becomes impaired in dementia to improve neuroscientific understanding, aid the identification of this problematic symptom, and target interventions to reduce burden and improve care.

Dynamic neural reconfiguration for distinct strategies during competitive social interactions

Information exchange between brain regions is key to understanding information processing for social decision-making, but most analyses ignore its dynamic nature. New insights on this dynamic might help us to uncover the neural correlates of social cognition in the healthy population and also to understand the malfunctioning neural computations underlying dysfunctional social behavior in patients with mental disorders. In this work, we used a multi-round bargaining game to detect switches between distinct bargaining strategies in a cohort of 76 healthy participants. These switches were uncovered by dynamic behavioral modeling using the hidden Markov model. Proposing a novel model of dynamic effective connectivity to estimate the information flow between key brain regions, we found a stronger interaction between the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) for the strategic deception compared with the social heuristic strategies. The level of deception was associated with the information flow from the Brodmann area 10 to the rTPJ, and this association was modulated by the rTPJ-to-rDLPFC information flow. These findings suggest that dynamic bargaining strategy is supported by dynamic reconfiguration of the rDLPFC-and-rTPJ interaction during competitive social interactions.

An Exploratory Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Human-Robot Interactions With Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy.

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been gaining increasing interest as a practical mobile functional brain imaging technology for understanding the neural correlates of social cognition and emotional processing in the human prefrontal cortex (PFC). Considering the cognitive complexity of human-robot interactions, the aim of this study was to explore the neural correlates of emotional processing of congruent and incongruent pairs of human and robot audio-visual stimuli in the human PFC with fNIRS methodology. Hemodynamic responses from the PFC region of 29 subjects were recorded with fNIRS during an experimental paradigm which consisted of auditory and visual presentation of human and robot stimuli. Distinct neural responses to human and robot stimuli were detected at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) regions. Presentation of robot voice elicited significantly less hemodynamic response than presentation of human voice in a left OFC channel. Meanwhile, processing of human faces elicited significantly higher hemodynamic activity when compared to processing of robot faces in two left DLPFC channels and a left OFC channel. Significant correlation between the hemodynamic and behavioral responses for the face-voice mismatch effect was found in the left OFC. Our results highlight the potential of fNIRS for unraveling the neural processing of human and robot audio-visual stimuli, which might enable optimization of social robot designs and contribute to elucidation of the neural processing of human and robot stimuli in the PFC in naturalistic conditions.

Two‐monkey fMRI setup for investigating multifaceted aspects of social cognition and behavior involving a real‐live conspecific

While brain research over the past decades has shed light on the neural correlates of social cognition and behavior in human and non-human primates, most of this research has been performed in virtual settings requiring subjects to observe pictures or recorded videos instead of observing or interacting with another real-live individual. Here we present a two-monkey fMRI setup, allowing examining whole brain responses in macaque monkeys while they observe or interact face-to-face with another real-live conspecific. We tested this setup by comparing overall brain responses during observation of conspecific hand actions in a virtual (observation of recorded videos of actions) or live context (observation of a real-live conspecific performing actions). This dyadic monkey fMRI setup allows examining brain-wide responses in macaque monkeys during different aspects of social behavior, including observation of real-live actions and sensations, social facilitation, joint-attention and social interactions.

The sequencing process generated by the cerebellum crucially contributes to social interactions

The capacity to understand another person’s emotions, intentions, beliefs and personality traits, based on observed or communicated behaviors, is termed social cognition. During the last decade, social neuroscience has made great progress in understanding the neural correlates of social cognition. However, because the cerebellum is traditionally viewed as only involved in motor processing, the contribution of this major part of the brain in social processing has been largely ignored and its specific role in social cognition remains unclear. Nevertheless, recent meta-analyses have made its crucial contribution to social cognition evident. This raises the question: What is the exact function of the cerebellum in social cognition? We hypothesize that the cerebellum builds internal action models of our social inter-actions to predict how other people’s actions will be executed, what our most likely responses are to these actions, so that we can automatize our interactions and instantly detect disruptions in these action sequences. This mechanism likely 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 behaviors and to detect violations. This hypothesis has major implications in neurological disorders affecting the cerebellum such as autism, with detrimental effects on social functionality, especially on more complex and abstract social cognitive processes. Because the fundamental anatomical organization of the cerebellum is identical in many species (cerebellar microcomplexes), this hypothesis could have major impacts to elucidate social interactions in social animals.

Neural Correlates of Racial Ingroup Bias in Observing Computer-Animated Social Encounters

Despite evidence for the role of group membership in the neural correlates of social cognition, the mechanisms associated with processing non-verbal behaviors displayed by racially ingroup vs. outgroup members remain unclear. Here, 20 Caucasian participants underwent fMRI recording while observing social encounters with ingroup and outgroup characters displaying dynamic and static non-verbal behaviors. Dynamic behaviors included approach and avoidance behaviors, preceded or not by a handshake; both dynamic and static behaviors were followed by participants’ ratings. Behaviorally, participants showed bias toward their ingroup members, demonstrated by faster/slower reaction times for evaluating ingroup static/approach behaviors, respectively. At the neural level, despite overall similar responses in the action observation network to ingroup and outgroup encounters, the medial prefrontal cortex showed dissociable activation, possibly reflecting spontaneous processing of ingroup static behaviors and positive evaluations of ingroup approach behaviors. The anterior cingulate and superior frontal cortices also showed sensitivity to race, reflected in coordinated and reduced activation for observing ingroup static behaviors. Finally, the posterior superior temporal sulcus showed uniquely increased activity to observing ingroup handshakes. These findings shed light on the mechanisms of racial ingroup bias in observing social encounters, and have implications for understanding factors related to successful interactions with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation.

Hostile jokes (HJs) provide aggressive catharsis and a feeling of superiority. Behavioral research has found that HJs are perceived as funnier than non-hostile jokes (NJs). The purpose of the present study was to identify the neural correlates of the interaction between type and humor by comparing HJs, NJs, and their corresponding hostile sentences (HSs) and non-hostile sentences (NSs). HJs primarily showed activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and midbrain compared with the corresponding hostile baseline. Conversely, NJs primarily revealed activation in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), amygdala, midbrain, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) compared with the corresponding non-hostile baseline. These results support the critical role of the medial PFC (mPFC) for the neural correlates of social cognition and socio-emotional processing in response to different types of jokes. Moreover, the processing of HJs showed increased activation in the dmPFC, which suggested cognitive operations of social motivation, whereas the processing of NJs displayed increased activation in the vmPFC, which suggested social-affective engagement. HJs versus NJs primarily showed increased activation in the dmPFC and midbrain, whereas NJs versus HJs primarily displayed greater activation in the amygdala and midbrain. The psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated functional coupling of the dmPFC–dlPFC and midbrain–dmPFC for HJs and functional coupling of the vmPFC–midbrain and amygdala–midbrain–NAcc for NJs. Surprisingly, HJs were not perceived as funnier than NJs. Future studies could further investigate the neural correlates of potentially important traits of high-hostility tendencies in humor appreciation based on the psychoanalytic and superiority theories of humor.

A pilot study: Investigating the neural correlates of social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders using fMRI

Event Abstract Back to Event A pilot study: Investigating the neural correlates of social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders using fMRI Charlotte Knee-Zaska1*, Omar Mothersill1 and Gary Donohoe1 1 NUI Galway, Psychology, Ireland Social cognition can be defined as mental processes allowing people to perceive and process information about themselves and others, enabling successful navigation of the social world (Van Overwalle, 2009). Social cognitive defects (such as emotion recognition and mental state reasoning, or ‘theory of mind’) are a core feature of several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia (Couture et al., 2006) and strongly predict functional outcome (Fett et al., 2011). For this reason social cognition is a potential target for new pharmacological and/or cognitive treatments. A better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms involved are a critcal step towards this. The present study aims to elucidate these mechanisms using functional MRI across a sample of psychosis patients (N = 30) and demographically-matched healthy controls (N = 30). Three robust social cognitive tasks will be used during fMRI, including (1) emotion recognition, where participants observe video clips of angry or neutral facial expressions (Grosbras and Paus, 2006), (2) theory of mind, where participants view cartoons and contemplate the mental states of the characters (Brüne et al., 2008) and (3) social exclusion, where participants experience social exclusion from a computer ball game (Sebastian et al., 2011).This study will also examine effects of putative risk factors for psychosis, including effects of genome-wide associated genetic risk variants (Ripke et al., 2011) and environmental factors. Using a single healthy volunteer, this pilot fMRI study highlighted several brain regions that were activated during each of these social cognitive tasks at a p<0.05 level, including corticolimbic and default mode networks, consistent with previous social neuroimaging studies. References Van Overwalle, F. (2009). Social cognition and the brain: a meta‐analysis.Human brain mapping, 30(3), 829-858. Couture, S. M., Penn, D. L., & Roberts, D. L. (2006). The functional significance of social cognition in schizophrenia: a review. Schizophrenia bulletin, 32(suppl 1), S44-S63. Fett, A. K. J., Viechtbauer, W., Dominguez, M. D. G., Penn, D. L., van Os, J., & Krabbendam, L. (2011). The relationship between neurocognition and social cognition with functional outcomes in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(3), 573-588. Grosbras, M. H., & Paus, T. (2006). Brain networks involved in viewing angry hands or faces. Cerebral Cortex, 16(8), 1087-1096. Brüne, M., Lissek, S., Fuchs, N., Witthaus, H., Peters, S., Nicolas, V., ... & Tegenthoff, M. (2008). An fMRI study of theory of mind in schizophrenic patients with “passivity” symptoms. Neuropsychologia, 46(7), 1992-2001. Sebastian, C. L., Tan, G. C., Roiser, J. P., Viding, E., Dumontheil, I., & Blakemore, S. J. (2011). Developmental influences on the neural bases of responses to social rejection: implications of social neuroscience for education. Neuroimage, 57(3), 686-694. Keywords: social cognition, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Schizophrenia, theory of mind (ToM), Emotion recogntion, social exclusion Conference: Neuroscience Ireland Young Neuroscientists Symposium 2014 , Dublin, Ireland, 20 Sep - 20 Sep, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Early Career Neuroscience Citation: Knee-Zaska C, Mothersill O and Donohoe G (2014). A pilot study: Investigating the neural correlates of social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders using fMRI . Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroscience Ireland Young Neuroscientists Symposium 2014 . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2014.87.00020 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 12 Sep 2014; Published Online: 12 Sep 2014. * Correspondence: Mrs. Charlotte Knee-Zaska, NUI Galway, Psychology, Galway, Ireland, kneec@tcd.ie Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe Google Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe Google Scholar Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe PubMed Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

EPA-1004 - SENSO: A new framework for the study of neural correlates of social cognition in depression

Objectives To describe a new framework ‘SENSO’ (sensitivity to social signal) that emphasizes that acute depressed patients show abnormal cognitive, emotional and biological responses to positive and negative social signals with impaired monitoring of social acceptance. Methods We will review evidence that Major Depression is associated with increasing vulnerability to social rejection and social stress. We will also discuss a recent meta-analysis realized by our group evaluating neural correlates of social exclusion tasks in healthy subjects. Results Major Depression is clearly precipitated by major social life-events. These social events increase the need for subjects to monitor their level of social acceptance and induce stress response. Self-propagatory processes (i.e. excessive reassurance seeking, negative feedback seeking) generate in depressed patients a vicious circle leading to increase sensitivity to social rejection. Social exclusion tasks in healthy subjects induce increased activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, subgenual cortex and insula, regions implicated in self-processing and production of negative emotion. Conclusion Results of our literature review and of our meta-analysis stress the importance of studying interpersonal processes and their neural correlates in depressive phenomena. They emphasize the role of salient and default mode networks in the pathophysiology of major depression.

Deficits in social cognition: a marker for psychiatric disorders?

Research on social cognition focuses on several human abilities with a huge diversity in the approaches to tap the different functions. Empathy, for instance, is a rather elaborated human ability, and several recent studies point to significant impairments in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or autism. Neuroimaging data from these patients commonly indicate neural dysfunctions accompanying the behavioral deficits. Studying the neural correlates of social cognition is of particular importance, because deficits in these domains may explain the major dysfunctions in psychiatric disorders that prevent effective (re) integration into work and social life. It has also become clearer that social cognition deficits, similar to emotion dysfunctions, may represent trait markers and endophenotypes of the diseases. However, there are several challenges for future studies on social cognitive dysfunctions: on the one hand, the complexity of the constructs and thus the variety of definitions which make it hard to develop adequate tasks. On the other hand, results are needed that particularly address the disorder specificity of these impairments, as well as their potential as endophenotypes via analyzing people at high-risk and their relatives.

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Observing Virtual Social Interactions

The ability to gauge social interactions is crucial in the assessment of others' intentions. Factors such as facial expressions and body language affect our decisions in personal and professional life alike (1). These "friend or foe" judgements are often based on first impressions, which in turn may affect our decisions to "approach or avoid". Previous studies investigating the neural correlates of social cognition tended to use static facial stimuli (2). Here, we illustrate an experimental design in which whole-body animated characters were used in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings. Fifteen participants were presented with short movie-clips of guest-host interactions in a business setting, while fMRI data were recorded; at the end of each movie, participants also provided ratings of the host behaviour. This design mimics more closely real-life situations, and hence may contribute to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of social interactions in healthy behaviour, and to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in social behaviour in such clinical conditions as social anxiety and autism (3).

Commentary: Complementary approaches to the developmental cognitive neuroscience of autism - reflections on Pelphrey et al. (2011)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are currently defined on the basis of observable behavior, with diagnostic criteria allow for enormous heterogeneity. In principle, two hypothetical individuals can receive a diagnosis of ‘‘autistic disorder’’ despite evidencing entirely non-overlapping symptoms. There is a growing sense that this heterogeneity stands as a major obstacle to further progress in understanding the causes of ASDs. In the current issue, however, Pelphrey, Hudac, Schulz & Vander Wyk (2011) argue that researchers have ‘‘over-emphasised the heterogeneity in ASD’’ by failing to recognize ‘‘the homogeneity of core disruptions in social information processing’’. Focusing on brain regions implicated in social cognition, they suggest, will ‘‘constrain’’ the heterogeneity problem. In what follows, I outline some of the challenges for this approach to autism and advocate a complementary research strategy that seeks instead to capitalize on autistic heterogeneity. Autism is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder, affecting multiple aspects of cognition and behaviour. While it makes sense to constrain the research question by seeking a good explanation of a specific aspect of the disorder, this is not the same as constraining autism itself. Some form of social impairment is required for an autism diagnosis, entailing that social dysfunction is a universal amongst diagnosed individuals. Although Pelphrey et al. (2011) acknowledge that the nature of this social impairment can vary considerably, they suggest that the underlying neurobiological mechanisms may be common to all or most individuals on the autism spectrum. Given the complexity of our social cognitive apparatus and the many potential ways in which its development could go awry, strong evidence is required before such an assertion can be made.

ANS: Aberrant Neurodevelopment of the Social Cognition Network in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by aberrant neurodevelopment. Although the ASD brain undergoes precocious growth followed by decelerated maturation during early postnatal period of childhood, the neuroimaging approach has not been empirically applied to investigate how the ASD brain develops during adolescence.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe enrolled 25 male adolescents with high functioning ASD and 25 typically developing controls for voxel-based morphometric analysis of structural magnetic resonance image. Results indicate that there is an imbalance of regional gray matter volumes and concentrations along with no global brain enlargement in adolescents with high functioning ASD relative to controls. Notably, the right inferior parietal lobule, a role in social cognition, have a significant interaction of age by groups as indicated by absence of an age-related gain of regional gray matter volume and concentration for neurodevelopmental maturation during adolescence.Conclusions/SignificanceThe findings indicate the neural correlates of social cognition exhibits aberrant neurodevelopment during adolescence in ASD, which may cast some light on the brain growth dysregulation hypothesis. The period of abnormal brain growth during adolescence may be characteristic of ASD. Age effects must be taken into account while measures of structural neuroimaging have been clinically put forward as potential phenotypes for ASD.

Neural correlates of social cognition in naturalistic settings: A model-free analysis approach

Neuroimaging studies have consistently identified a network of brain regions subserving inferences of other humans' mental states. This network consists of the superior temporal sulcus, temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, temporal poles, and precuneus. Little is known, however, about the neural substrate underlying Theory of Mind processes in close to real-life conditions. To investigate those processes in more naturalistic settings, we used an fMRI adaption of the video-based Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC; Dziobek et al., 2006), which considers separate analysis of implicit mental state reasoning during rapidly changing perceptual cues as demanded in naturalistic settings and explicit mental state reasoning. We analyzed fMRI data by means of both a standard general linear model (GLM) approach and a tensor probabilistic independent component analysis (T-PICA), which is a novel model-free approach that allows decomposition of activation into independent spatio-temporally coherent functional networks. The model-based GLM approach revealed the typical explicit mental state reasoning network. Complementary to the GLM approach, the model-free T-PICA approach showed that those regions are also recruited during implicit mental state reasoning and that they are represented in three independent, functionally connected networks. The first component, mediating face processing and recognition, comprises the occipito-parietotemporal cortices, while the second component, involved in language comprehension, comprises the temporal lobes, lateral prefrontal cortex, and precuneus. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus comprise the third component, which is likely responsible for self-referential mental activity.These results show that the mental state reasoning network can be decomposed into circumscribed functional networks mediating differential aspects of Theory of Mind.

Probing the Neural Correlates of Anticipated Peer Evaluation in Adolescence

Neural correlates of social-cognition were assessed in 9- to- 17-year-olds (N = 34) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants appraised how unfamiliar peers they had previously identified as being of high or low interest would evaluate them for an anticipated online chat session. Differential age- and sex-related activation patterns emerged in several regions previously implicated in affective processing. These included the ventral striatum, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and insula. In general, activation patterns shifted with age in older relative to younger females but showed no association with age in males. Relating these neural response patterns to changes in adolescent social-cognition enriches theories of adolescent social development through enhanced neurobiological understanding of social behavior.

Oxytocin, sexually dimorphic features of the social brain, and autism

The common features of autism spectrum disorder, a highly heritable representative pervasive developmental disorder with significant heterogeneity and multiple-genetic factors, are severe dysfunction in social reciprocity, abnormalities in social brain regions, and disproportionately low probability in the female gender. Concomitantly, certain domains of mental function, such as emotional memory and social reciprocity, show a significant sex difference. In addition, recent neuroimaging studies have shown significant sexual dimorphisms in neuroanatomical correlates of social cognition. Recently, some sexually dimorphic factors, including oxytocin, vasopressin, and genes linked with the x-chromosome, have received attention because of their possible contribution to mental development especially in the social cognitive domain. Taking this evidence together, it is hypothesized that a sexually dimorphic factor associated with social reciprocity could affect characteristics of autism spectrum disorder including dysfunction in social reciprocity, abnormalities in social brain regions, and disproportionately low probability in female gender. This review article overviews sexual dimorphisms in clinical features of autism spectrum disorder, in normal social cognition, and in social brain function and structure. The association of oxytocin with sexual dimorphisms, social reciprocity, neural correlates of social cognition, and the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder were further summarized. Recent studies have suggested that oxytocin plays a role in social attachment in experimental animals, in enhancing social interactive ability in human adults, and in the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder. Thus, the ongoing accumulated evidence suggests that oxytocin deserves to be examined as a candidate that causes the sexually dimorphic aspect of human social reciprocity, social brain development and the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder.

Before and below ‘theory of mind’: embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition

The automatic translation of folk psychology into newly formed brain modules specifically dedicated to mind-reading and other social cognitive abilities should be carefully scrutinized. Searching for the brain location of intentions, beliefs and desires-as such-might not be the best epistemic strategy to disclose what social cognition really is. The results of neurocognitive research suggest that in the brain of primates, mirror neurons, and more generally the premotor system, play a major role in several aspects of social cognition, from action and intention understanding to language processing. This evidence is presented and discussed within the theoretical frame of an embodied simulation account of social cognition. Embodied simulation and the mirror neuron system underpinning it provide the means to share communicative intentions, meaning and reference, thus granting the parity requirements of social communication.

Introduction. Social intelligence: from brain to culture

Humans are perhaps the most social animals. Although some eusocial insects, herd mammals and seabirds live in colonies comprising millions of individuals, no other species lives in such a variety of social groups as Homo sapiens . We live in many different sized societies, from small, nomadic hunter