Social Information Processing Deficits Research Articles

Maternal supportive responses to adolescents' negative emotions serve as protective factors for adolescents' hostile attribution bias longitudinally.

Existing literature has documented that parenting links to children's hostile attribution biases (HAB). However, little is known about the role played by parental emotion socialization in children's HAB. To address this research gap, the present study investigated the role of parental responses to children's negative emotions (PRCNE) in predicting adolescents' HAB using a longitudinal study. Adolescents (N = 203; Mage = 13.61 years old at Time 1), who were recruited from a city in mainland China, reported on their mothers' PRCNE and their own HAB at two waves over a year. The results showed that mothers' supportive responses (composed of emotion-focused responses and problem-focused responses) significantly predicted adolescents' reduced HAB over time; however, PRCNE including expressive encouragement, minimization, and nonsupportive responses (composed of punitive responses and parental distress) had no significant relation with adolescents' HAB. These findings add to the existing literature investigating antecedents to adolescents' social information processing deficits and biases.

Common outcome, different pathways: Social information-processing deficits in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Common outcome, different pathways: Social information-processing deficits in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Common outcome, different pathways: Social information-processing deficits in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Social functioning is a key domain of impairment in both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This review adopts the social information-processing model as the theoretical framework to compare and contrast the deficits of ASD and ADHD at each of the six steps of social information-processing. Both disorders show deficits at each step, but the nature and origins of the deficits are different. Thus, while both disorders exhibit a common outcome of social impairment, the exact pathways that each disorder traverses along the six steps of social information-processing are different. For ASD, there is a social knowledge/behaviour deficit arising from difficulties in social/emotional cue detection, encoding, and interpretation, leading to problems in joining and initiating social interaction. For ADHD, there is a performance deficit incurred by disruption arising from the ADHD symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, while its acquisition capacity on social knowledge is relatively intact. The inattentive, intrusive, and impulsive behaviours of ADHD unsettle social interaction. Finally, this review proposes training targets for intervention along the six steps of the social information-processing model for ASD and ADHD, as well as areas for future research in further elucidating the social impairment of the two disorders.

Accidental and Ambiguous Situations Reveal Specific Social Information Processing Biases and Deficits in Adolescents with Low Intellectual Level and Clinical Levels of Externalizing Behavior

Addressing aggression in youth requires understanding of the range of social problem situations that may lead to biased social information processing (SIP). The present study investigated situation-specificity of SIP and analyzed whether SIP deficits and biases are found in ambiguous as well as clearly accidental situations in adolescents with clinical levels of externalizing behavior or with low intellectual level, congruent with mild intellectual disability. Adolescents (N = 220, Mage = 15.21) completed a SIP test on a mobile app with six videos with ambiguous, hostile, and accidental social problems. Caretakers, teachers, and adolescents themselves reported on youth externalizing behavior problems. In accidental situations specifically, adolescents with low IQ scores more often attributed purposeful intent to perpetrators than peers with borderline or average IQ scores. In accidental situations, adolescents with clinical levels of externalizing behavior generated and selected more aggressive responses than nonclinical adolescents, regardless of their cognitive level. In line with previous literature, the ambiguous situations also brought out SIP differences between IQ groups. These results suggest that not only ambiguous situations should be considered informative for understanding SIP biases, but situations in which adolescents are clearly accidentally disadvantaged bring out SIP biases as well, that may lead to conflicts with others.

Training Social Information Processing in Elementary School Children With Intellectual Disabilities: A Key to Support Their Emotion Regulation and Social Behaviors

Children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) show deficits in social information processing (SIP) that increased the risk of social maladjustment. As social inclusion is a major preoccupation for professionals and parents, it is important to know how foster SIP among these children, in order to support their understanding of social situations, their emotion regulation and social adjustment. The present study tested the efficacy of a new “SIP program for children”, considering specific strengths and weaknesses of these children. It also explored the potential causal contribution of SIP in elementary school children with ID to their emotion regulation, social adjustment and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. 30 children between 5 and 12 years with mild or moderate IDs, took part in a pre-test session involving measures on cognition and social problem solving. Teachers and/or parents completed questionnaires assessing children’s emotion regulation and social adjustment. Secondly, children were allocated to control or experimental groups. Experimental group participated in the “SIP program for children”. It was implemented by two trainers which used the specific material and technics described by the program during eight sessions to sub-groups of three children. After, all children took part in post-test sessions. Results showed significant improvement of social problem-solving abilities in children of experimental groups. After SIP training, they easily judged social behaviors and produced more complex justifications related to social consciousness and social rules, in comparison to the control group. Parents perceived children who had participated in the training as more socially adjusted and teachers described them as more integrated, autonomous and cooperative. These children were also perceived as displaying fewer internalizing problems.

Social communication, executive functions and expressive language in children with ASD with ADHD symptoms –an exploratory study

There are several factors associated with language deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous research identified theory of mind difficulties, executive function deficits, abstract thinking and social information processing deficits as being linked with language deficits in ASD. However when it comes to the co-occurance of ASD and ADHD symptoms studies have different theories regarding the way language and social communication deficits emerge. In our exploratory study we propose to investigate the role of the auditory memory in the development of vocabulary and his indirect relation to social interaction and communication. In order to reach our goals we have described 6 case studies of children with ASD and ADHD s ymptoms aged 7 years old. Our results reveal that even if the participants in this study have a low to medium performance in the auditory memory task, this does not seem to impact expressive language to a high extend. Moreover the majority of the participants in our study had good vocabulary skills but seem to have difficulties in social communication. This study was designed to be a preliminary investigation of the connection between different factors that may influence social communication in children with ASD and ADHD symptoms and it can bring new research directions in the domain.

Investigating social-contextual determinants of cooperation in incarcerated violent offenders

Antisocial and psychopathic personality traits constitute a severe and treatment resistant form of externalizing psychopathology. While deficits in social information processing have been extensively investigated in these individuals, less is known about their capacity for altruism and cooperation. In particular, no studies to date have investigated whether established social-contextual determinants of cooperation, e.g., group affiliation and number of expected interactions, can motivate cooperative behaviour in antisocial individuals. The present study compared cooperative behaviour of incarcerated violent offenders (N = 52) and controls (N = 46) by using an established social interaction paradigm (Give Some Dilemma) where two players divide monetary units between themselves and the counterpart. Group affiliation (in- vs. out-group) and number of expected interactions (single-trial vs. repeated-trial interactions) were manipulated. Violent offenders as compared to controls shared less monetary units with their counterparts, indicating an overall reduced cooperation. Both groups showed increased cooperation rates towards in-group members and in repeated interactions. Higher psychopathic traits were associated with lower cooperation in single-trial interactions in the violent offender group. Although cooperation was comparably reduced in violent offenders, behaviour in both groups was determined by the number of expected interactions as well as group affiliation, thus providing evidence for equivalent social-contextual determinants.

The Children’s Social Comprehension Scale (CSCS): Construct validity of a new social intelligence measure for elementary school children

The abilities comprising social intelligence are critical to children’s development and interpersonal functioning, and there is a need for reliable and valid tools for measuring them. This paper describes the Children’s Social Comprehension Scale (CSCS), which is a performance-based test of the cognitive component of social intelligence for young schoolchildren. The CSCS was developed as an easy-to-use and rapid screening tool for diagnosing deficits in social information processing, such as understanding and evaluation of social situations. The final version of the instrument exhibits satisfactory score reliability as measured by Cronbach’s alpha and acceptable factorial validity of results as determined by confirmatory factor analysis for each of the studied age groups (6–7, 8–9, and 10–11 years; N = 358). The validity of the CSCS results is also corroborated by its positive correlations with other measures of social intelligence (stronger), intellectual potential (weaker), and an indicator of effective social functioning. The scores on the test show age differences in the expected direction. All these findings suggest that the CSCS is valid and reliable measure of cognitive social intelligence in children.

Loss of white matter connections after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its relationship to social cognition

Adults with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often suffer poor social cognition. Social cognition is complex, requiring verbal, non-verbal, auditory, visual and affective input and integration. While damage to focal temporal and frontal areas has been implicated in disorders of social cognition after TBI, the role of white matter pathology has not been examined. In this study 17 adults with chronic, severe TBI and 17 control participants underwent structural MRI scans and Diffusion Tensor Imaging. The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) was used to assess their ability to understand emotional states, thoughts, intentions and conversational meaning in everyday exchanges. Track-based spatial statistics were used to perform voxelwise analysis of Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD) of white matter tracts associated with poor social cognitive performance. FA suggested a wide range of tracts were implicated in poor TASIT performance including tracts known to mediate, auditory localisation (planum temporale) communication between nonverbal and verbal processes in general (corpus callosum) and in memory in particular (fornix) as well as tracts and structures associated with semantics and verbal recall (left temporal lobe and hippocampus), multimodal processing and integration (thalamus, external capsule, cerebellum) and with social cognition (orbitofrontal cortex, frontopolar cortex, right temporal lobe). Even when controlling for non-social cognition, the corpus callosum, fornix, bilateral thalamus, right external capsule and right temporal lobe remained significant contributors to social cognitive performance. This study highlights the importance of loss of white matter connectivity in producing complex social information processing deficits after TBI.

PTSD, Anger, and Trauma-Informed Intimate Partner Violence Prevention

Despite a large and growing literature showing high rates of prior trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among those who engage in intimate partner violence (IPV), there has been a lack of trauma-informed interventions developed for this population. This review discusses the latest background research and clinical developments in the area of trauma-informed IPV intervention. We discuss how recent evidence points to the relevance of trauma-related social information processing biases and anger in the etiology of IPV perpetration, and a promising intervention that targets social information processing deficits in preventing and ending IPV. Future areas of research are needed to better explicate the mechanisms responsible for the success of these interventions, as well as replication of research findings across trauma-exposed populations and trauma types.

Cognition sociale dans les troubles neuro-génétiques de l’enfant : revue de la littérature

Social cognitive impairments may largely contribute to reduced social skills and adaptive problems in individuals with microdeletion syndromes associated with behavioral and psychiatric phenotypes. Understanding the role of social information processing deficits in the emergence of psychotic disorders is a crucial challenge in the management of these patients. Each neurogenetic disorder is characterized by a specific social cognition phenotype. Clarifying the social ability profile of each population may help adjust patient care according to their key strengths and weaknesses. The main objective of this article is to review the social cognitive skills of various neurogenetic disorders and shed light on the specific mechanisms that may underlie these skills in each syndrome. After detailing the different processes unified under the generic term "social cognition", we present these processes in the most frequent microdeletion syndromes presenting with social interaction deficits: 22q11.2deletion syndrome, Angelman syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Rett syndrome, Smith-Magenis syndrome, Turner syndrome, and Williams syndrome. Finally, we highlight future approaches that may have a significant influence on the development of adapted therapeutic interventions, such as cognitive remediation therapies. The importance of connecting neurocognitive and social cognition remediations is also emphasized.

Predictors of Long-Term Victimization After Early Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury.

Pediatric traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) adversely affect long-term functional and social outcomes. Limited research suggests children with TBI are more likely to be victimized by peers than noninjured children. Deficits in social information processing (SIP), cognitive ability, and executive functioning (EF) may contribute to increased victimization risk. This study examined rates of peer victimization/bullying in children with early TBI compared with children with orthopedic injuries (OIs) and the role of processing speed, executive function (EF), and SIP as mediators of the association of TBI and peer victimization. Children ages 10 to 14 years who sustained a complicated mild/moderate or severe TBI (N = 58) or OI (N = 72) during early childhood (ages 3-7 yr) and their parents participated in a longitudinal prospective follow-up 6.8 years postinjury. SIP, EF and processing speed, and peer victimization were assessed. Parents of children with severe TBI reported greater rates of peer victimization than parents of children with OIs. Children with severe TBI demonstrated greater EF deficits than children with complicated mild/moderate TBI or OI and poorer processing speed than children with OI. No significant indirect relationships were found between groups and any outcome variables to indicate mediation. Based on parent report, children with severe TBI have higher risk of peer victimization than those with less severe injuries. In addition, children with severe TBI have more impaired EF and cognitive ability than counterparts with less severe TBI. Further research is needed to explore predictors of long-term victimization after early TBI to create interventions aimed at providing social, emotional, and behavioral skill building for victimized youth.

Investigating the Use of a video-based Social Information Processing Interview Schedule (SIPIS) for Individuals with ASD subtypes

Introduction: Although individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) share common social interaction deficits, there are specific differences in the quality of their social information processing. Objectives: The purpose of this study was two-fold: (i) what are the measurement properties of the SIPIS, in measuring the construct of social information processing from the three aspects of social encoding, social empathy and social reasoning, in regard to its degree of fitness to the Rasch model? (ii) Can the SIPIS discriminate SIP performances between neurotypical controls, individuals with ASD and their subtypes? Methods: Subjects with ASD and their subtypes were assessed through viewing social videos using the newlydeveloped Social Information Processing Interview Schedule (SIPIS). Rasch analysis was adopted to investigate the psychometric properties of the newly developed SIPIS including its discriminative validity. Results: Findings of the Rasch analyses supported that the SIPIS contains assessment items that tap into the social encoding, social empathy, and social reasoning aspects of social information processing. Findings confirmed that both individuals with ASD and with ADHD manifest more difficulties in social information processing compared to the control group and that the social information processing deficits in individuals with ASD-only and comorbid ASD/ ADHD tend to occur more at the cognitive level while in individuals with ADHD-only they to occur more at the emotional perception level. Conclusion: Our findings seem to support the parallel pathways of the bottom-up emotion perception-action coupling processes and the top-down meta-cognitive executive regulatory control. Future assessment and intervention can be further explored from the perspectives of social information processing.

Some social abilities cross ASD and ADHD, but not OCD, researchers find

Repetitive behavior, inattention, social deficits, and hyperactivity — these traits are often identified, at varying levels, in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). While deficits in social information processing are known to be a core symptom of ASD, social deficits are also being found in other conditions, including ADHD and OCD. Researchers wanted to find out the extent to which deficits are specific for ASD. Children with ADHD have greater difficulty recognizing fear, sadness, and anger than typical children, researchers have found. Individuals with ASD have impairments in recognizing anger, fear, and surprise, and individuals with OCD have difficulty recognizing disgust and anger.

Neural correlates of out-group bias predict social impairment in patients with schizophrenia

BackgroundSocial impairments are a hallmark feature of schizophrenia and are a key predictor of functional disability. Deficits in social information processing likely underlie social impairment; however, this relationship is understudied. We previously demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia fail to habituate to neutral faces, providing evidence for an alteration in basic social information processing. It remains unknown whether patients with schizophrenia also show deficits in processing of more complex social information. Out-group bias provides an excellent opportunity to test complex social information processing because the bias requires basic face processing skills, the ability to discriminate between groups, as well as the ability to categorize oneself into a salient social group. MethodsStudy participants were 23 patients with schizophrenia and 21 controls. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, habituation of response to 120s of repeated presentations of faces was assessed in participants who viewed either same-gender faces or opposite-gender faces. The interaction between face gender (same/opposite) and group was examined in three key regions: amygdala, hippocampus, and visual cortex. Social impairment was measured using the PANSS and correlations between social impairment and out-group effect (main effect of face type) were performed in patients. ResultsPatients with schizophrenia had aberrant neural responses to opposite-gender faces (interaction, p<.05 corrected). Healthy controls showed an immediate heightened response to opposite-gender faces relative to same-gender faces; but in patients this effect was substantially delayed (~70s). In patients with schizophrenia, the out-group bias was significantly correlated with social impairment. Patients with no social impairment showed a heightened neural response to opposite-gender faces after 30s, whereas patients with mild–moderate social impairment failed to ever show a heightened response. ConclusionAlterations in neural responses during out-group processing predicted degree of social impairment in patients with schizophrenia; thus, neural responses to opposite-gender faces may provide a novel measure for studies of treatment response and disease outcome.

Cognitive styles in depressed children with and without comorbid conduct disorder

Little is known about patterns of cognitive impairment in depression comorbid with conduct disorder. The study included clinically depressed children with (N = 23) or without conduct disorder (N = 29), and controls without psychiatric disorder (N = 37). Cognitive biases typical of depression and patterns of social information processing were assessed. Both depressed groups had substantially higher rates of negative cognitive distortions, attributional biases and ruminative responses than non-depressed children. Children in the comorbid group made more hostile attributions and suggested more aggressive responses for dealing with threatening social situations, whilst children with depression only were more likely to be unassertive. Depression has a number of similar depressotypic cognitive biases whether or not complicated by conduct disorder, and may be potentially susceptible to similar interventions. The results also highlight the importance of recognising social information processing deficits when they occur and targeting those too, especially in comorbid presentations.

A comparison of neural correlates underlying social cognition in Klinefelter syndrome and autism

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a genetic syndrome characterized by the presence of an extra X chromosome that appears to increase the risk of psychopathology, such as autism symptoms. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine underlying mechanisms related to this risk, with the aim of gaining insight into neural mechanisms behind social-cognitive dysfunction in KS and autism, and understanding similarities and differences in social information processing deficits. Fourteen boys with KS, seventeen boys with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and nineteen non-clinical male controls aged 10-18 years were scanned while matching and labeling facial expressions (i.e. face processing and affect labeling, respectively). No group differences in neural activation were found during face processing. However, during affect labeling, the ASD group showed increased activation in the amygdala compared with controls, while the KS group showed increased activation in frontal areas compared with both controls and the ASD group. No group differences in task performance were found. Although behavioral symptoms of social dysfunction appear similar both in boys with KS and ASD, this is the first study to demonstrate different underlying etiologies. These results may aid in identifying different pathways to autism symptoms, which may help understanding variability within the ASD spectrum.

Sex Differences in Social Perception in Children with ASD

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is more common in males than females. An underrepresentation of females in the ASD literature has led to limited knowledge of differences in social function across the sexes. Investigations of face perception represent a promising target for understanding variability in social functioning between males and females. The current study analyzed electrophysiological brain recordings during face perception to investigate sex differences in the neural correlates of face perception and their relationship to social function. Event related potentials (ERP) were recorded from children with ASD while viewing faces, inverted faces, and houses. Relative to males, females showed attenuated response at an ERP marker of face perception, the N170. Among females, but not males, atypical face response was associated with symptom severity. Observed sex differences reflect influential differences in social information processing, and impairment in these features correlates with deficits in social information processing in females, but not males, with ASD. These findings hold significance for future treatment protocols, which should account for differences in males and females with ASD in clinical presentation and neural phenotypes.

Social and Nonsocial Content Differentially Modulates Visual Attention and Autonomic Arousal in Rhesus Macaques

The sophisticated analysis of gestures and vocalizations, including assessment of their emotional valence, helps group-living primates efficiently navigate their social environment. Deficits in social information processing and emotion regulation are important components of many human psychiatric illnesses, such as autism, schizophrenia and social anxiety disorder. Analyzing the neurobiology of social information processing and emotion regulation requires a multidisciplinary approach that benefits from comparative studies of humans and animal models. However, many questions remain regarding the relationship between visual attention and arousal while processing social stimuli. Using noninvasive infrared eye-tracking methods, we measured the visual social attention and physiological arousal (pupil diameter) of adult male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) as they watched social and nonsocial videos. We found that social videos, as compared to nonsocial videos, captured more visual attention, especially if the social signals depicted in the videos were directed towards the subject. Subject-directed social cues and nonsocial nature documentary footage, compared to videos showing conspecifics engaging in naturalistic social interactions, generated larger pupil diameters (indicating heightened sympathetic arousal). These findings indicate that rhesus monkeys will actively engage in watching videos of various kinds. Moreover, infrared eye tracking technology provides a mechanism for sensitively gauging the social interest of presented stimuli. Adult male rhesus monkeys' visual attention and physiological arousal do not always trend in the same direction, and are likely influenced by the content and novelty of a particular visual stimulus. This experiment creates a strong foundation for future experiments that will examine the neural network responsible for social information processing in nonhuman primates. Such studies may provide valuable information relevant to interpreting the neural deficits underlying human psychiatric illnesses such as autism, schizophrenia and social anxiety disorder.

Soziale Informationsverarbeitung bei körperlich und relational aggressiven Vorschulkindern

It was examined whether physically and relationally aggressive children exhibit deficits in social information processing. 193 preschool children (mean age: 55 months) were presented with hypothetical social situations in order to assess responses that indicate deficient social information processing (hostile attribution of intent, generation of aggressive responses, positive evaluation of aggression and aggressive response selection). Physically aggressive children attributed more hostile intent, generated more aggressive responses, selected more aggressive reactions and had more overall deficits in social information processing than children who were not physically aggressive. Relationally aggressive children, on the other hand, did not show any problems in social information processing. The social information processing model does not explain relationally aggressive behavior. To prevent or reduce physical aggression, social information processing should be promoted among children of preschool age.