Non-social Cognition Research Articles

Impact of traumatic brain injury on social cognition in adolescents and contribution of other higher order cognitive functions

ABSTRACTSocial cognition impairments can contribute to social participation difficulties following traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, little attention has been given to these impairments during adolescence, a period of life when peer relationships are central. The aim of the current study was to examine the impact of a moderate to severe TBI sustained in adolescence on multiple facets of social cognition. Twenty-three adolescents who had sustained a moderate-to-severe TBI were compared with a group of 23 typically developing peers. The Integrated Social Cognition Battery (mentalising, social knowledge, emotion recognition) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index were administered, along with non-social cognition tests (selective attention, working memory, executive functions), IQ estimation, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Adolescents with TBI reported having a significantly lower ability to take other people's perspectives versus controls. They also presented significantly lower levels of mentalising. After controlling for non-social higher-order cognitive variables, the group effect on mentalising remained marginally significant, whereas the effect on perspective taking remained significant. Our findings suggest the presence of primary deficits in social cognition following TBI in adolescence. These deficits could partially underlie the social reintegration difficulties encountered following TBI. A systematic assessment of social cognition in clinical practice is necessary.

Social carnivores outperform asocial carnivores on an innovative problem

The social intelligence hypothesis proposes that social complexity selects for cognitive complexity. However, the role of social complexity in the evolution of nonsocial cognition remains unresolved, resulting in disparate hypotheses. The domain-specific hypothesis posits that sociality only bolsters cognition associated with social challenges and contends that ecological complexity drives the evolution of nonsocial cognition. Alternatively, the domain-general hypothesis argues that the unmatched selective pressures of sociality favour greater cognitive flexibility and ultimately superior general cognition. We tested these hypotheses through experimental comparisons of nonsocial cognition in social and asocial carnivores: lions, Panthera leo, spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta, leopards, Panthera pardus, and tigers, Panthera tigris. We tested subjects using a technical task, a puzzle-box, designed to test innovation. Social species were more successful innovators than asocial species. We also observed a positive association between sociality, persistence and innovation; social species spent significantly more time engaged in the task, and persistent individuals were more successful in solving the task. Thus, our findings support the domain-general hypothesis; social carnivores outperformed asocial carnivores on an innovative problem.

Targeting social and non-social cognition to improve cognitive remediation outcomes in schizophrenia

ABSTRACT FROM: Muller DR, Schmidt SJ, Roder V. One-year randomized controlled trial and follow-up of Integrated Neurocognitive Therapy for schizophrenia outpatients. Schizophr Bull 2015;41:604–16. Patients with schizophrenia experience broad cognitive...

Cognitive Impairment in Bipolar Disorder: Comparison with Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia

The present commentary aims to investigate findings of cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder in comparison with those in schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder may share a subtle neurodevelopmental deviation with schizophrenia. However, premorbid enhanced cognitive function can be a risk factor only for bipolar disorder. Performance patterns of social and nonsocial cognition may be oppositional between the two disorders. Comparison of cognitive impairment between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia needs to consider the possibility of cognitive heterogeneity within each disorder.

The effects of reading material on social and non-social cognition

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reading material on both social and non-social cognition. Prior research supports the hypothesis that reading fiction improves theory of mind (Kidd & Castano, 2013; Mar, Oatley, Hirsh, de la Paz, & Peterson, 2006; Mar, Oatley, & Peterson, 2009); however, little has been done to test its effects on other cognitive abilities. In this study, we tested the effect of reading literary fiction vs. non-fiction on both theory of mind and intuitive physics understanding. In line with previous research, results indicate a small but significant within-subject effect of reading material on theory of mind once other variables are controlled. Although the experimental manipulation (literary fiction vs. nonfiction) had no effect on intuitive physics understanding, we found that familiarity with fiction predicted intuitive physics ability. These results are discussed in terms of theories of fiction.

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate enhances mood and prosocial behavior without affecting plasma oxytocin and testosterone

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a GHB-/GABAB-receptor agonist. Reports from GHB abusers indicate euphoric, prosocial, and empathogenic effects of the drug. We measured the effects of GHB on mood, prosocial behavior, social and non-social cognition and assessed potential underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms. GHB (20mg/kg) was tested in 16 healthy males, using a randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Subjective effects on mood were assessed by visual-analogue-scales and the GHB-Specific-Questionnaire. Prosocial behavior was examined by the Charity Donation Task, the Social Value Orientation test, and the Reciprocity Task. Reaction time, memory, empathy, and theory-of-mind were also tested. Blood plasma levels of GHB, oxytocin, testosterone, progesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), cortisol, aldosterone, and adrenocorticotropic-hormone (ACTH) were determined. GHB showed stimulating and sedating effects, and elicited euphoria, disinhibition, and enhanced vitality. In participants with low prosociality, the drug increased donations and prosocial money distributions. In contrast, social cognitive abilities such as emotion recognition, empathy, and theory-of-mind, and basal cognitive functions were not affected. GHB increased plasma progesterone, while oxytocin and testosterone, cortisol, aldosterone, DHEA, and ACTH levels remained unaffected. GHB has mood-enhancing and prosocial effects without affecting social hormones such as oxytocin and testosterone. These data suggest a potential involvement of GHB-/GABAB-receptors and progesterone in mood and prosocial behavior.

Constructing a social subject

This article examines three key aetiological theories of autism (meta-representations, executive dysfunction and weak central coherence), which emerged within cognitive psychology in the latter half of the 1980s. Drawing upon Foucault’s notion of ‘forms of possible knowledge’, and in particular his concept of savoir or depth knowledge, two key claims are made. First, it is argued that a particular production of autism became available to questions of truth and falsity following a radical reconstruction of ‘the social’ in which human sociality was taken both to exclusively concern interpersonal interaction and to be continuous with non-social cognition. Second, it is suggested that this reconstruction of the social has affected the contemporary cultural experience of autism, shifting attention towards previously unacknowledged cognitive aspects of the condition. The article concludes by situating these claims in relation to other historical accounts of the emergence of autism and ongoing debates surrounding changing articulations of social action in the psy disciplines.

Altered Network Topologies and Hub Organization in Adults with Autism: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on autism spectrum condition (ASC) have identified dysfunctions in specific brain networks involved in social and non-social cognition that persist into adulthood. Although increasing numbers of fMRI studies have revealed atypical functional connectivity in the adult ASC brain, such functional alterations at the network level have not yet been fully characterized within the recently developed graph-theoretical framework. Here, we applied a graph-theoretical analysis to resting-state fMRI data acquired from 46 adults with ASC and 46 age- and gender-matched controls, to investigate the topological properties and organization of autistic brain network. Analyses of global metrics revealed that, relative to the controls, participants with ASC exhibited significant decreases in clustering coefficient and characteristic path length, indicating a shift towards randomized organization. Furthermore, analyses of local metrics revealed a significantly altered organization of the hub nodes in ASC, as shown by analyses of hub disruption indices using multiple local metrics and by a loss of “hubness” in several nodes (e.g., the bilateral superior temporal sulcus, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and precuneus) that are critical for social and non-social cognitive functions. In particular, local metrics of the anterior cingulate cortex consistently showed significant negative correlations with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient score. Our results demonstrate altered patterns of global and local topological properties that may underlie impaired social and non-social cognition in ASC.

Genetic Influences on Receptive Joint Attention in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Despite their genetic similarity to humans, our understanding of the role of genes on cognitive traits in chimpanzees remains virtually unexplored. Here, we examined the relationship between genetic variation in the arginine vasopressin V1a receptor gene (AVPR1A) and social cognition in chimpanzees. Studies have shown that chimpanzees are polymorphic for a deletion in a sequence in the 5′ flanking region of the AVPR1A, DupB, which contains the variable RS3 repetitive element, which has been associated with variation in social behavior in humans. Results revealed that performance on the social cognition task was significantly heritable. Furthermore, males with one DupB+ allele performed significantly better and were more responsive to socio-communicative cues than males homozygous for the DupB- deletion. Performance on a non-social cognition task was not associated with the AVPR1A genotype. The collective findings show that AVPR1A polymorphisms are associated with individual differences in performance on a receptive joint attention task in chimpanzees.

Genes underlying altruism

William D. Hamilton postulated the existence of 'genes underlying altruism', under the rubric of inclusive fitness theory, a half-century ago. Such genes are now poised for discovery. In this article, we develop a set of intuitive criteria for the recognition and analysis of genes for altruism and describe the first candidate genes affecting altruism from social insects and humans. We also provide evidence from a human population for genetically based trade-offs, underlain by oxytocin-system polymorphisms, between alleles for altruism and alleles for non-social cognition. Such trade-offs between self-oriented and altruistic behaviour may influence the evolution of phenotypic diversity across all social animals.

Adapting social neuroscience measures for schizophrenia clinical trials, part 3: fathoming external validity.

It is unknown whether measures adapted from social neuroscience linked to specific neural systems will demonstrate relationships to external variables. Four paradigms adapted from social neuroscience were administered to 173 clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia to determine their relationships to functionally meaningful variables and to investigate their incremental validity beyond standard measures of social and nonsocial cognition. The 4 paradigms included 2 that assess perception of nonverbal social and action cues (basic biological motion and emotion in biological motion) and 2 that involve higher level inferences about self and others' mental states (self-referential memory and empathic accuracy). Overall, social neuroscience paradigms showed significant relationships to functional capacity but weak relationships to community functioning; the paradigms also showed weak correlations to clinical symptoms. Evidence for incremental validity beyond standard measures of social and nonsocial cognition was mixed with additional predictive power shown for functional capacity but not community functioning. Of the newly adapted paradigms, the empathic accuracy task had the broadest external validity. These results underscore the difficulty of translating developments from neuroscience into clinically useful tasks with functional significance.

Social cognition in patients with schizophrenia, their unaffected first degree relatives and healthy controls. Comparison between groups and analysis of associated clinical and sociodemographic variables

AimTo evaluate and compare the social cognition in patients with schizophrenia, healthy first-degree relatives and controls, by studying the relationship between social cognition and nonsocial cognition, psychopathology, and other clinical and sociodemographic variables. MethodThe total sample was comprised of patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (n=29), healthy first-degree relatives (n=21) and controls (n=28). All groups were assessed with an ad hoc questionnaire and a Social Cognition Scale, which assessed the domains: emotional processing, social perception and attributional style in a Spanish population. The patient group was also assessed with the Scale for the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Mini-mental state examination. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 15.0. ResultsPatients scored significantly worse in all domains of social cognition assessed, compared with controls, and mastery attributional style, compared with relatives. The type of psychopathology correlated negatively and statistically significantly with different domains of social cognition: negative symptoms with emotional processing and attributional style, and positive symptoms with social perception. Basic cognition scores correlated positively and statistically significantly with the domains social perception and attributional style. ConclusionSocial cognition has become an interesting object of study, especially in how it relates to non-social cognition, psychopathology and global functioning of patients, bringing new elements to be considered in the early detection, comprehensive treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation of patients. Its conceptualisation as trait variable, the consideration of the existence of a continuum between patients and relatives are plausible hypotheses that require further research.

Group Size Predicts Social but Not Nonsocial Cognition in Lemurs

The social intelligence hypothesis suggests that living in large social networks was the primary selective pressure for the evolution of complex cognition in primates. This hypothesis is supported by comparative studies demonstrating a positive relationship between social group size and relative brain size across primates. However, the relationship between brain size and cognition remains equivocal. Moreover, there have been no experimental studies directly testing the association between group size and cognition across primates. We tested the social intelligence hypothesis by comparing 6 primate species (total N = 96) characterized by different group sizes on two cognitive tasks. Here, we show that a species’ typical social group size predicts performance on cognitive measures of social cognition, but not a nonsocial measure of inhibitory control. We also show that a species’ mean brain size (in absolute or relative terms) does not predict performance on either task in these species. These data provide evidence for a relationship between group size and social cognition in primates, and reveal the potential for cognitive evolution without concomitant changes in brain size. Furthermore our results underscore the need for more empirical studies of animal cognition, which have the power to reveal species differences in cognition not detectable by proxy variables, such as brain size.

Commonalities in social and non-social cognitive impairments in adults with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia are both conditions that are characterized by impairments in social and non-social cognition, yet commonalities in the magnitude and domains of cognitive deficits across these two conditions remain unclear. This study examined neurocognitive and social-cognitive functioning in 47 outpatients with schizophrenia, 43 verbal adults with ASD, and 24 healthy volunteers. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery assessing processing speed, attention, memory, and problem-solving domains was administered along with a social-cognitive battery of emotion processing. Results demonstrated large and significant impairments in emotion processing and neurocognition relative to healthy individuals in participants with autism (d=−.97 and −1.71, respectively) and schizophrenia (d=−.65 and −1.48, respectively). No significant differences were observed between those with ASD and schizophrenia on any cognitive domain assessed, and the areas of greatest impairment were identical across both disorders and included slowness in speed of processing and an inability to understand emotions. These findings indicate a high degree of similarity in the cognitive challenges experienced by verbal adults with autism and schizophrenia, and the potential need for trans-diagnostic remediation approaches to enhance cognition in these conditions.

Prenatal and postnatal hormone effects on the human brain and cognition

This review examines the role of hormones in the development of social and nonsocial cognition and the brain. Research findings from human studies designed to elucidate the effects of both prenatal and postnatal exposure to hormones in children and young adults are summarized. Effects are found to be both time and dose dependent, with exposure to abnormal hormone levels having a limited impact outside the "critical window" in development. Particular attention is given to the role of prenatal hormone exposure, which appears to be vital for early organization of the brain. In later life, measurements of circulating hormone levels and the administration of testosterone and oxytocin are found to predict behavior, but the effect is thought to be one of "activation" or "fine-tuning" of the early organization of the brain. Possible directions for valuable future research are discussed.

Social and Nonsocial Cognition in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia: Relative Levels of Impairment

This study aimed to determine the relative extent of impairment in social and nonsocial cognitive domains in patients with bipolar disorder compared with schizophrenia patients and healthy comparison subjects. Sixty-eight clinically stable outpatients with bipolar disorder, 38 clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia, and 36 healthy comparison subjects completed a range of social (facial affect perception, emotional regulation, empathic accuracy, mental state attribution, and self-referential memory) and nonsocial (speed of processing, attention/vigilance, working memory, verbal memory, visual memory, and reasoning/problem solving) cognitive tasks. For each social cognitive task, patients with bipolar disorder did not differ significantly from comparison subjects, and both groups performed better than schizophrenia patients. Within the bipolar group, clinical features and medication status were not related to social cognitive performance. Bipolar patients showed performance patterns across tasks (i.e., profiles) that were similar to those of comparison subjects on both social and nonsocial cognitive domains, whereas both groups differed from schizophrenia patients for both domains. Regarding relative impairment across the two cognitive domains, results revealed a significant group-by-domain interaction in which bipolar patients showed less impaired social than nonsocial cognition, while schizophrenia patients showed the opposite pattern. Bipolar patients showed less impairment on social relative to nonsocial cognitive performance, whereas schizophrenia patients showed more impairment on social relative to nonsocial cognitive performance. These results suggest that these two cognitive domains play different roles in bipolar disorder compared with in schizophrenia.

Impairments in Social Cognition Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to physical, neuropsychological, and emotional deficits that interfere with the individual’s capacity to return to his or her former lifestyle. This review focuses on social cognition, that is, the capacity to attend to, recognize and interpret interpersonal cues that guide social behavior. Social cognition entails ‘‘hot’’ processes, that is, emotion perception and emotional empathy and ‘‘cold’’ processes, that is, the ability to infer the beliefs, feelings, and intentions of others (theory of mind: ToM) to see their point of view (cognitive empathy) and what they mean when communicating (pragmatic inference). This review critically examines research attesting to deficits in each of these domains and also examines evidence for theorized mechanisms including specific neural networks, the role of simulation, and non-social cognition. Current research is hampered by small, heterogeneous samples and the inherent complexity of TBI pathology. Nevertheless, there is evidence that facets of social cognition are impaired in this population. New assessment tools to measure social cognition following TBI are required that predict everyday social functioning. In addition, research into remediation needs to be guided by the growing empirical base for understanding social cognition that may yet reveal how deficits dissociate following TBI.

Cognición social en pacientes con esquizofrenia, familiares de primer grado y controles sanos. Comparación entre grupos y análisis de variables clínicas y sociodemográficas relacionadas

To evaluate and compare the social cognition in patients with schizophrenia, healthy first-degree relatives and controls, by studying the relationship between social cognition and nonsocial cognition, psychopathology, and other clinical and sociodemographic variables. The total sample was comprised of patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (N = 29), healthy first-degree relatives (N = 21) and controls (N = 28). All groups were assessed with an ad hoc questionnaire and a Social Cognition Scale, which assessed the domains: emotional processing, social perception and attributional style in a Spanish population. The patient group was also assessed with the Scale for the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Mini-mental state examination. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 15.0. Patients scored significantly worse in all domains of social cognition assessed, compared with controls, and mastery attributional style, compared with relatives. The type of psychopathology correlated negatively and statistically significantly with different domains of social cognition: negative symptoms with emotional processing and attributional style, and positive symptoms with social perception. Basic cognition scores correlated positively and statistically significantly with the domains social perception and attributional style. Social cognition has become an interesting object of study, especially in how it relates to non-social cognition, psychopathology and global functioning of patients, bringing new elements to be considered in the early detection, comprehensive treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation of patients. Its conceptualization as trait variable, the consideration of the existence of a continuum between patients and relatives are plausible hypotheses that require further research.

Ostensive Cues Orient 10-Month-Olds’ Attention toward the Task But Delay Learning

The aim of this study is to investigate how ostensive cues modify infants’ visual attention to task demonstration, and the extent to which this enhances the performance in an imitative learning task. We hypothesized that ostensive cues would help orient infants’ attention toward relevant parts of the demonstration. We investigated the looking behavior of 41 10-month-old infants while observing an adult demonstrating a novel target action after having either provided ostensive cues or not. Infants’ looking behavior was measured using an eye tracker. Two areas of interest were analyzed: the targeted object and the adult’s face. Infants’ performance after demonstration was also analyzed. The results show that infants’ looking behavior varied across groups. When ostensive cues were not provided, infants looked mainly at the experimenter’s face. However, when ostensive cues were provided, infants oriented their attention toward the targeted object. These results suggest that ostensive cues help infants orient their attention toward task-relevant parts of the scene. Surprisingly, infants in the non-ostensive group improved their performance faster after demonstration than infants in the ostensive group. These results are discussed in terms of a video effect and dissociation between separate cognitive systems for social and non-social cognition.

Social cognition in 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome: Relevance to psychosis?

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22qDS) represents one of the largest known genetic risk factors for schizophrenia. Approximately 30% of individuals with 22qDS develop psychotic illness in adolescence or young adulthood. Given that deficits in social cognition are increasingly viewed as a central aspect of idiopathic schizophrenia, we sought to investigate abilities in this domain as a predictor of psychotic symptoms in 22qDS participants. We assessed multiple domains of social and non-social cognition in 22qDS youth to: 1) characterize performance across these domains in 22qDS, and identify whether 22qDS participants fail to show expected patterns of age-related improvements on these tasks; and 2) determine whether social cognition better predicts positive and negative symptoms than does non-social cognition. Task domains assessed were: emotion recognition and differentiation, Theory of Mind (ToM), verbal knowledge, visuospatial skills, working memory, and processing speed. Positive and negative symptoms were measured using scores obtained from the Structured Interview for Prodromal Symptoms (SIPS). 22qDS participants (N=31, mean age: 15.9) showed the largest impairment, relative to healthy controls (N=31, mean age: 15.6), on measures of ToM and processing speed. In contrast to controls, 22qDS participants did not show age-related improvements on measures of working memory and verbal knowledge. Notably, ToM performance was the best predictor of positive symptoms in 22qDS, accounting for 39% of the variance in symptom severity. Processing speed emerged as the best predictor of negative symptoms, accounting for 37% of the variance in symptoms. Given that ToM was a robust predictor of positive symptoms in our sample, these findings suggest that social cognition may be a valuable intermediate trait for predicting the development of psychosis.