Social Cognitive Abilities Research Articles

Online Assessment of Social Cognition in a Population of Gamers and Gamblers: Results of the eSMILE Study

The purpose of the eSMILE study was to explore social cognition (SC) in the two behavioural addictions (BAs) included in international classifications: gaming disorder and gambling disorder. In these disorders, cognitive functioning is involved in the development and maintenance of addiction. Nevertheless, SC have received less attention than other cognitive functions. The eSMILE study was conducted online and included 105 participants (gamers and gamblers). This study included: the Penn emotion recognition task, the Condensed and Revised Multifaced Empathy Test, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Chicken Game, social metacognition questions, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. We analysed the relationships among SC measures, addiction levels, and behaviour frequency. For gamers, we showed that the higher their level of addiction was, the lower their self-confidence following the identification of basic emotions, although the more frequently they played, the better their performance on this task. Additionally, we found lower performance on the identification of more complex emotions by gamblers, which seems to be the result of their levels of addiction rather than the frequency of their gambling behaviour. This study contributes to our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying BAs. Additionally, working on SC abilities may be an additional management mode for BAs that could be added to existing treatments.

Examining the association between social media fatigue, cognitive ability, narcissism and misinformation sharing: cross-national evidence from eight countries

Several studies have explored the causes and consequences of public engagement with misinformation and, more recently, COVID-19 misinformation. However, there is still a need to understand the mechanisms that cause misinformation propagation on social media. In addition, evidence from non-Western societies remains rare. This study reports on survey evidence from eight countries to examine whether social media fatigue can influence users to believe misinformation, influencing their sharing intentions. Our insights also build on prior cognitive and personality literature by exploring how this mechanism is conditional upon users’ cognitive ability and narcissism traits. The results suggest that social media fatigue can influence false beliefs of misinformation which translates into sharing on social media. We also find that those with high levels of cognitive ability are less likely to believe and share misinformation. However, those with low cognitive ability and high levels of narcissism are most likely to share misinformation on social media due to social media fatigue. This study is one of the first to provide cross-national comparative evidence highlighting the adverse effects of social media fatigue on misinformation propagation and establishing that the relationship is not universal but dependent on both cognitive and dark personality traits of individuals.

Neuroactive metabolites modulated by the gut microbiota in honey bees.

Honey bees have emerged as a new model to study the gut-brain axis, as they exhibit complex social behaviors and cognitive abilities, while experiments with gnotobiotic bees have revealed that their gut microbiota alters both brain and behavioral phenotypes. Furthermore, while honey bee brain functions supporting a broad range of behaviors have been intensively studied for over 50 years, the gut microbiota of bees has been experimentally characterized only recently. Here, we combined six published datasets from metabolomic analyses to provide an overview of the neuroactive metabolites whose abundance in the gut, hemolymph and brain varies in presence of the gut microbiota. Such metabolites may either be produced by gut bacteria, released from the pollen grains during their decomposition by bacteria, or produced by other organs in response to different bacterial products. We describe the current state of knowledge regarding the impact of such metabolites on brain function and behavior and provide further hypotheses to explore in this emerging field of research.

Effect of race on Gaze Cueing in adults with high and low autistic traits

BackgroundObserving the direction of gaze of another person leads to shifting of attention in the same direction (gaze-cueing effect – GCE), a social-cognitive ability known as joint or social attention. Racial attitudes can influence the magnitude of GCE since it has been shown that White people showing a strong race ingroup preference follow the gaze only of White, and not Black, faces. Individuals with high autistic traits have difficulties in social-cognitive abilities that can disrupt the learning of socially shared racial attitudes. Our aim was to investigate in White Italian adults whether individuals with higher autistic traits (measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient) show reduced implicit racial bias (measured by the Implicit Association Test) and if this bias would lead to differences in the gaze cueing effect (GCE) triggered by gaze direction of faces of different races (measured by the Gaze Cueing Task).MethodsIn an online study, participants (N = 165; 132 females; Mean age = 22.9; SD = 4.76) filled in the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) questionnaire, then performed a Gaze Cueing Task, followed and by an Implicit Association Test.ResultsLinear regression and linear mixed model analyses showed in the IAT task the presence of the same implicit ingroup bias for all participants, which was not predicted by the AQ score, while in the Gaze Cueing Task the GCE differed depending on the AQ score of the participants. Specifically, participants with low-medium, medium, and medium–high autistic traits (AQ = -1SD; AQ = mean; AQ = + 1SD respectively) presented the GCE for both ingroup and outgroup cueing faces, whereas participants with high autistic traits (AQ = + 2SD) only for ingroup faces.ConclusionsIn White Italian adults the presence of an implicit ingroup bias seems to influence the GCE, but it is not always true that the individuals showing an implicit ingroup bias do not orient their attention in the direction of gaze of the outgroup individuals. Instead, the GCE seems to be modulated by the level of autistic traits. That is, individuals with higher autistic traits seem to prioritize joint attention with only their ingroup members.

Partner similarity andsocial cognitive traits predict social interaction success among strangers.

Social interactions are a ubiquitous part of engaging in the world around us, and determining what makes an interaction successful is necessary for social well-being. This study examined the separate contributions of individual social cognitive ability and partner similarity to social interaction success among strangers, measured by a cooperative communication task and self-reported interaction quality. Sixty participants engaged in a 1-h virtual social interaction with an unfamiliar partner (a laboratory confederate) including a 30-min cooperative 'mind-reading' game and then completed several individual tasks and surveys. They then underwent a separate functional MRI session in which they passively viewed video clips that varied in content. The neural responses to these videos were correlated with those of their confederate interaction partners to yield a measure of pairwise neural similarity. We found that trait empathy (assessed by the interpersonal reactivity index) and neural similarity to partner both predicted communication success in the mind-reading game. In contrast, perceived similarity to partner and (to a much lesser extent) trait mind-reading motivation predicted self-reported interaction quality. These results highlight the importance of sharing perspectives in successful communication as well as differences between neurobiological similarity and perceived similarity in supporting different types of interaction success.

The relationship between peripheral insulin resistance and social cognitive deficits among euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

BackgroundDespite extensive literature documenting emotion-related social-cognitive deficits in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BD), the factors contributing to these deficits have not been definitively established. To address this gap, the present study aimed to examine the association between peripheral insulin resistance (IR) and emotion-related social-cognitive abilities in BD patients and controls. MethodSixty-five BD patients and 38 non-psychiatric controls were recruited, and their social cognitive ability and IR were measured using the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), respectively. ResultsThe study found that the BD patients scored significantly lower than the non-psychiatric controls in the task of emotional management. The BD patients had a higher mean HOMA-IR value as compared with the controls but this result was not statistically significant (p = 0.051). The interaction between BD diagnosis and HOMA-IR value was significant on the MSCEIT Facilitating emotions branch and Facilitation subscale (p = 0.024, p = 0.010), and post-hoc analyses revealed that the BD patients in the higher HOMA-IR group had significantly lower scores than BD patients in the lower HOMA-IR group and the non-psychiatric controls in the higher HOMA-IR group on both the MSCEIT Facilitating emotion branch and Facilitation subscale. LimitationsDue to the cross-sectional nature of the study, causality could not be inferred. The study did not examine potential mediators or moderators between IR and social cognition. ConclusionsThe results suggested that BD patients with IR experience additional impairment in specific domains of social cognition.

Contrasting social knowledge and theory of mind patterns in adults with personality disorders, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and healthy controls

ABSTRACT Introduction Personality disorders (PD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are distinct conditions displaying common symptoms, like impairments in social cognition, that make them hard to distinguish, especially in severe cases. To date, few studies have compared theory of mind skills in these two disorders, and none have compared social knowledge skills. This study aims to compare the social cognitive abilities of patients with these conditions. Method Non-parametric analyses of covariance were used to compare severe PD patients (n = 37), SSD patients (n = 44), and healthy controls (HC; n = 49) on the Social Knowledge Test and two measures of theory of mind: the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test and the Combined Stories Test, which incorporates items from various widely used tests. Results While no significant group differences were found on the Social Knowledge Test, SSD patients performed lower than the HC group on both theory of mind tests. PD patients only had lower performance than the HC group on specific items from the Combined Stories Test. Conclusions PD and SSD patients demonstrated distinctive patterns of social cognitive impairments, with items of greater complexity or with an affective orientation being the most discriminant for PD.

DETECTION OF AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER USING DEEP LEARNING

Social interaction, conduct, and cognitive ability are all impacted by the neuro developmental illness known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Even though ASD diagnosis can be difficult and time-consuming, early detection and intervention can improve long-term results. Early childhood is when autism spectrum disorder first manifests, and it eventually leads to issues with social, academic, and occupational functioning in society. Within the first year, autism signs are frequently visible in children. Some infants display autistic spectrum disorder symptoms as early as infancy, including decreased eye contact, a lack of responsiveness to their name, or a lack of interest in carers. To identify the presence of disorder at an early stage, use a deep learning system like LSTM. Self-Stimulatory Behaviours Dataset (SSBD) was used to collect the datasets, and video dataset was used to construct the system. The feature extraction algorithm is the Blaze Pose algorithm. The model file has been constructed, and the datasets will be trained using the deep learning technique. When a disease prediction input image is provided, the severity of the disease is determined as a result. Using the children's activity, the proposed system offers an effective way to more effectively anticipate the presence of autism spectrum disorder Key Words: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Long-Short Term Memory, Blaze Pose, Batch Normalization, ReLu, Softmax

유아용 사회인지 평가 모바일 앱의 개발 및 타당화

This study was to develop and validate a mobile application, the mindreading-ⓢ, that assesses young children’s social cognition abilities. A total of 445 children participated in the study and used the mindreading-ⓢ, while their caregivers filled in the Children’s Social Understanding Scale (CSUS), Social Cognition Checklist (SCC). The mindreading- ⓢ included 48 items and assesses seven sub-factors: joint attention, emotion, pretend, perception, desire, belief, and intention. After calculating the average correct answer rate and standard deviation, and analyzing reliability and item-total correlation, two items were deleted. To determine the likelihood of guessing, the difficulty, and the discrimination per item, IRT analysis was performed and six items identified as inappropriate were modified. Regarding construct validity, the mindreading-ⓢ showed reasonably positive correlations with CSUS and SCC. As a result, the mindreading-ⓢ was verified to be a reliable tool for assessing young children’s social cognition abilities.

Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Social Attention Patterns and Emotion Recognition Ability in Male Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social cognition including emotion recognition (ER) abilities. Common symptoms include unusual patterns of visual social attention, which are investigated as early developmental biomarkers for ASD. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has shown promising results in influencing social functioning in individuals with ASD. However, the effects of tDCS on social attention patterns and ER ability in adolescents with ASD remain unclear. This double-blind, sham-controlled, randomized clinical trial examined the effects of repeated sessions of tDCS on gaze behavior and ER ability in 22 male adolescents diagnosed with ASD. Participants received either 20 min of 2 mA active tDCS or sham stimulation for 10 days and an intra-stimulation training. Social allocation patterns were assessed using eye-tracking paradigms, including ER tasks. Our results indicated no tDCS-specific effects. Both groups showed improvements in ER and more frequent, faster, and longer fixations on the eyes than the mouth, and on social than nonsocial areas. In tasks with low social content, fixating the mouth seemed to increase ER accuracy. Understanding the effects of tDCS on social functioning in adolescents with ASD holds promise for the development of targeted interventions to improve their social cognition abilities.

Studying the Tonkean macaques of Strasbourg, a tale full of sound and fury.

In this paper, I chronicle the Strasbourg population of Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) over a period of half a century. In 1972, Tonkean macaques were imported from Sulawesi, Indonesia, to eastern France, leading to the establishment of two social groups in the Strasbourg region several years later. Our research team studied the social behavior and cognitive abilities of these Tonkean macaques for four decades. The species is characterized by a high degree of social tolerance. This has proven to be very informative in comparative studies of macaque social behavior, opening a new perspective on the evolution of primate societies. Over the years, the population has grown, and more social groups have been formed. However, the fact that some of the Tonkean macaques were healthy carriers of the herpes B virus led to disagreements over their management and eventually to the elimination of the positive individuals. Many individuals from the Strasbourg population are now kept in sanctuaries, and the number of captive breeding groups is limited. We still have much to learn about Tonkean macaques and there is a need for studies carried out in their native habitat in Sulawesi.

Does reading about fictional minds make us more curious about real ones?

AbstractAlthough there is a large body of research assessing whether exposure to narratives boosts social cognition immediately afterward, not much research has investigated the underlying mechanism of this putative effect. This experiment investigates the possibility that reading a narrative increases social curiosity directly afterward, which might explain the short-term boosts in social cognition reported by some others. We developed a novel measure of state social curiosity and collected data from participants (N = 222) who were randomly assigned to read an excerpt of narrative fiction or expository nonfiction. Contrary to our expectations, we found that those who read a narrative exhibited less social curiosity afterward than those who read an expository text. This result was not moderated by trait social curiosity. An exploratory analysis uncovered that the degree to which texts present readers with social targets predicted less social curiosity. Our experiment demonstrates that reading narratives, or possibly texts with social content in general, may engage and fatigue social-cognitive abilities, causing a temporary decrease in social curiosity. Such texts might also temporarily satisfy the need for social connection, temporarily reducing social curiosity. Both accounts are in line with theories describing how narratives result in better social cognition over the long term.

Specialized Networks for Social Cognition in the Primate Brain.

Primates have evolved diverse cognitive capabilities to navigate their complex social world. To understand how the brain implements critical social cognitive abilities, we describe functional specialization in the domains of face processing, social interaction understanding, and mental state attribution. Systems for face processing are specialized from the level of single cells to populations of neurons within brain regions to hierarchically organized networks that extract and represent abstract social information. Such functional specialization is not confined to the sensorimotor periphery but appears to be a pervasive theme of primate brain organization all the way to the apex regions of cortical hierarchies. Circuits processing social information are juxtaposed with parallel systems involved in processing nonsocial information, suggesting common computations applied to different domains. The emerging picture of the neural basis of social cognition is a set of distinct but interacting subnetworks involved in component processes such as face perception and social reasoning, traversing large parts of the primate brain.

A randomized cross-over trial investigating the neurocognitive effects of acute exercise on face recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Difficulties in face recognition contribute to social-cognitive problems in autistic children. Evidence on behavioral interventions targeting this cognitive domain is limited. In non-autistic individuals, a single exercise session is known to elicit temporary benefits for several cognitive functions. Our study investigates whether acute aerobic exercise influences face recognition in autistic children. In a randomized order, 29 participants completed a 20-min moderately-intense cycling bout on an ergometer and a control condition. Before and after each condition, participants categorized Mooney faces and instruments during a computerized cognitive task. Simultaneously, the N170 component of event-related potentials and pupil size were recorded using electroencephalography and eyetracking, respectively. As indicated by a greater increase of reaction time in the exercise compared to the control condition, the results revealed impaired face recognition following aerobic exercise. This effect was accompanied by a lower decrease of the positive N170 amplitude and a trend towards a greater constriction of the pupil size in the exercise compared to the control condition. Our findings highlight the interplay of the physiological state and face recognition in autistic children. Exercise-induced impairments in this social-cognitive ability may be due to an interference with the learning effect that is typically seen for the structural encoding of faces.

Effectiveness of School-Based Occupational Therapy Interventions on School Skills and Abilities Among Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Systematic Review

ABSTRACT This systematic review aimed to synthesize the best available research evidence regarding the effectiveness of school-based occupational therapy interventions on school skills and abilities among children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder). The review was conducted according to JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute) guidelines . A three-step search strategy was conducted from five electronic databases (CINAHL, PubMed, OTDBASE, Google Scholar, and Oula-Finna) in January 2022. This review considered randomized and quasi-randomized studies that evaluated school-based occupational therapy interventions for children on school skills and abilities, specifically outcomes of social interaction and process skills, and cognitive abilities. This review includes thirteen studies with a total sample size of 375 participants. Results are divided into two categories: school-based occupational interventions for children with ADHD (three studies) and school-based occupational interventions for children with ASD (ten studies). Results from school-based occupational therapy intervention studies for children and adolescents with ADHD indicate that this group of students benefits from manualized interventions that focus on social interaction skills, process skills, and cognitive abilities. Positive responses to these outcomes were found when using interventions concerning mindfulness, weighted vests, and executive function training programs. Results from school-based occupational therapy intervention studies for children and adolescents with ASD emphasize using interventions that affect social interaction skills.

Enhancing pre-employment transition services: A type 1 hybrid randomized controlled trial protocol for evaluating WorkChat: A Virtual Workday among autistic transition-age youth

Autistic transition-age youth experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment, in part due to the social challenges they may face when having conversations in the workplace. In an effort to help enhance conversational abilities in the workplace, our collaborative team partnered to develop WorkChat: A Virtual Workday. Specifically, our team of scientists, community partners, and diversity and inclusion experts participated in a community-engaged process to develop WorkChat using iterative feedback from autistic transition-age youth and their teachers. With initial development complete, this study reports on the protocol that our collaborative team developed, reviewed, and approved to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the real-world effectiveness and initial implementation process outcomes of WorkChat when integrated into post-secondary pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS). Our aims are to: 1) evaluate whether services-as-usual in combination with WorkChat, compared to services-as-usual with an attention control, enhances social cognition and work-based social ability (between pre- and post-test); reduces anxiety about work-based social encounters (between pre- and post-test), and increases sustained employment by 9-month follow-up; 2) evaluate whether social cognitive ability and work-based social ability mediate the effect of WorkChat on sustained employment; and 3) conduct a multilevel, mixed-method process evaluation of WorkChat implementation.

Growing up laughing: Laughables and pragmatic functions between 12 and 36 months

Laughter serves a wide variety of functions in adult interaction, some of which are quite sophisticated from a pragmatic perspective. Nevertheless, it is a vocalization that emerges very early in ontogeny. We present a longitudinal semantic and pragmatic study of laughter among four American English mother-child dyads interacting freely at home from 12 to 36 months of age. Our data show differences in child laughter-use compared to mothers and a developmental trajectory in terms of the entities the laughter is related to, of laughter pragmatic functions, and in the amount of shared attention on the object of mothers’ laughter. We observe differences in mother laughter-use by comparison to patterns observed in adult-adult interaction. This suggests that laughter production, conveying meaning in a manner akin to speech, gets modulated in child directed interactions similarly to spoken utterances. Our data show that laughter-use can be informative about the neuro-psychological development of babies very early on: mirroring acquisition of physical world knowledge, development of social cognition, linguistic and pragmatic abilities. Our results constitute the basis for hypotheses about the co-option trajectory of laughter in humans and suggest that laughter production in interaction is a valuable resource for early pragmatic development evaluations.

Cognitive mechanisms of perspective-taking across adulthood: An eye-tracking study using the director task.

Perspective-taking plays an important role in daily life, allowing consideration of other people's perspectives and viewpoints. This study used a large sample of 265 community-based participants (aged 20-86 years) to examine changes in perspective-taking abilities-a component of "Theory of Mind"-across adulthood, and how these changes may relate to individual differences in executive functions at different ages. Participants completed a referential-communication task (the "Director" task) while behavioral responses and eye movements were recorded, along with four measures of executive functions (inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning). Results revealed a quadratic fit of age in egocentric errors; performance on the task plateaued between 20 to ~37 years old but showed a substantial decline from ~38 years onward (i.e., increased egocentric errors). A similar pattern was established in eye-movement measures, demonstrating that advancing age led to a decrease in efficient attention orientation to a target. In other words, older adults were more distracted by a hidden competitor object (egocentric interference) and were therefore delayed in orienting their attention to the correct target object. Mediation analyses revealed that executive functions partially mediated the effect of age on perspective-taking abilities. Importantly, however, the relationship between age and egocentric bias in task performance remained significant when controlling for changes in executive functions, indicating a decline in social cognition abilities with advancing age that was independent of age-related declines in more domain-general abilities, such as executive functions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Diagnosis, pelvic pain, and medication mediate cognitive empathic abilities among women with endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome

Objective: Investigate how women with self-reported endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), or no known reproductive disease perform on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, a metric of social cognitive empathic abilities, and how these scores are mediated by self-reported pelvic pain, depression levels, and medication use. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Online survey. Population: Saskatchewan; mixed ethnicities. Methods: Participants ( n = 342) completed surveys on diagnoses of endometriosis and PCOS, levels of pelvic pain, medications, depression, and cognitive empathy (the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, RMET). Results: Women with endometriosis showed lower scores on the RMET, compared to unaffected women and women with PCOS. However, among women with endometriosis, higher levels of pelvic pain and higher scores on an index of depression were associated with enhanced RMET performance. Among women with PCOS, medication with spironolactone, an androgen receptor antagonist, was associated with higher RMET scores, compared to women with PCOS who were not medicated or who were taking different medications. Conclusions: Symptoms (including pelvic pain), hormonal correlates, and some treatments of PCOS and endometriosis mediated variation in cognitive empathy.

0692 Relationships Between Sleep and Social Cognitive Biases in Schizophrenia-Spectrum and Bipolar Disorders

Abstract Introduction People with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSDs) and bipolar disorders (BDs) experience difficulty with social cognition, or the mental processes that underlie social interactions, but determinants of social cognitive impairment are still under investigation. Research suggests that poor sleep quality is related to reduced social cognitive ability in BDs, but it is unclear if sleep quality is related to social cognition in SSDs and if sleep may be related to different types of social cognition (e.g., emotion recognition, biases) in different ways. This study aimed to examine relationships between sleep and different types of social cognition in SSDs and BDs. Given known relationships between blaming and untrustworthiness biases and paranoia in these populations, paranoia was also examined as potential mediator of these relationships. Methods Participants (SSDs n=91; BDs with psychotic features n=87) completed tasks of social cognitive ability (e.g., facial and multi-modal emotion recognition, attributional bias, untrustworthiness bias). Participants self-reported their sleep quality. Paranoia was assessed via clinical interview. Results In the BD group, poor sleep quality (r=-.23, p=.04) and shorter sleep duration (r=-.25, p=.02) were associated with a bias towards untrustworthiness. For those with SSDs, increased use of sleep medication was associated with poorer multi-modal emotion recognition (r=-.22, p=.04). Additionally, poor sleep quality and overall poor sleep were associated with increased blaming (r=.22, p=.03; r=.21, p=.04) and untrustworthiness biases (r=-.24, p=.03; r=-.24, p=.03) in this group. Higher daytime tiredness was also associated with untrustworthiness bias (r=-.23, p=.03) in SSDs. Regarding mediation results, paranoia did serve as a mediator in the relationships between sleep and blaming and untrustworthiness biases across the sample. Conclusion Results suggest that poor sleep quality is linked to increased attributional and untrustworthiness biases, and that these relationships may be at least partially explained by paranoia symptoms. Of note, however, is that indirect effect sizes in mediation models were small. Contrary to expectations, poor sleep quality was not consistently associated with reduced social cognitive ability in the current sample. Findings from the current study require further exploration and replication. Support (if any) This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (grant number R01 MH116902-04 awarded to C.A.D).