Social cognitive and affective neuroscience最新文献

We investigate individuals' reduced ability to recognize faces of other ages, a phenomenon known as the Own-Age Bias (OAB). This study utilized a double-blind, between-subjects design in which anodal tDCS (10 minutes duration, 1.5 mA intensity, targeting the Fp3 location) was applied to disrupt the face inversion effect (FIE), which reflects higher recognition performance for upright compared to upside-down faces. Young adults participated in an old/new recognition task, where upright and inverted 'own-age' faces (19-30 years) and 'other-age' faces (older, 69-80 years) were presented. In the sham/control condition (n = 24), we observed a robust OAB, indicated by a significantly larger FIE for own-age faces compared to other-age faces. Importantly, in the anodal tDCS condition (n = 24), the FIE for own-age faces was significantly reduced compared to the sham condition, effectively eliminating the cross-age interaction index of the OAB. We interpret our results through a perceptual expertise-based account of the OAB.

We often seek advice from others outside our groups to optimize decision-making. This process may involve discerning the reliability of others, that is, whether the advice others provide is reliable enough to accept. However, little is known about how people collectively take advice from others. In this study, we recruited participant dyads (n = 35) to perform an advice-taking task, where they took advice collectively or individually from unreliable or reliable others. Interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) was examined using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based hyperscanning technique. For advice from unreliable others, the dyads performed better than the individuals. The dyads demonstrated a higher learning rate for bad advice than for good advice, as indicated by the analysis of the Bayesian reinforcement learning model. Furthermore, they demonstrated enhanced IBS in the frontopolar cortex, which was positively correlated with learning rates and dyad performance. However, these findings did not apply to reliable others or individuals. This study shows that groups, compared to individuals, are better able to discern valuable advice from others, which may be associated with neural coupling between members. This suggests a cognitive-brain mechanism for group advice-taking.

Social facilitation/inhibition (SFI) refers to how others' presence influences task performance positively or negatively. Our previous study revealed that peer presence modulated saccadic eye movements, a fundamental sensorimotor activity. Pro- and anti-saccades were either facilitated or inhibited depending on trial block complexity Tricoche L, Ferrand-Verdejo J, Pélisson D et al. (Peer Presence Effects on Eye Movements and Attentional Performance. Front Behav Neurosci 2020;13:1-13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00280). In the present fMRI study, we adapted our paradigm to investigate the neural basis of SFI on saccades. Considering inter- and intra-individual variabilities, we evaluated the shared and distinct neural patterns between social facilitation and inhibition. We predicted an involvement of the saccade-related and attention networks, alongside the Theory-of-Mind (ToM) network, with opposite activity changes between facilitation and inhibition. Results confirmed peer presence modulation in fronto-parietal areas related to saccades and attention, in opposite directions for facilitation and inhibition. Additionally, the ventral attention network was modulated during inhibition. Default mode regions, including ToM areas, were also modulated. Finally, pupil size, often linked to arousal, increased with peers and correlated with dorsal attention regions and anterior insula activities. These results suggest that SFI engages task-specific and domain-general networks, modulated differently based on observed social effect. Attention network seemed to play a central role at both basic (linked to arousal or vigilance) and cognitive control levels.

Financial fraud through false advertising has become increasingly prevalent among both younger and older adults, yet the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying real-time, face-to-face deceptive sales are unclear. In addition, the effects of guilt appeal as a marketing strategy, across age groups, remain unexplored. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning to examine purchase decisions and neural mechanisms by age group and sales approach (guilt vs. control) in a face-to-face sale mimicking real-life scenarios. Older adults had higher purchase intentions for products promoted by false advertising across sales approaches compared to younger adults. However, younger adults were more likely to be influenced by guilt appeal. The neural results aligned with the behavioral finding that younger adults' intra-brain functional connectivity and inter-brain synchronization values were greater in the guilt condition than in the control, whereas no difference between conditions was found for older adults. Using inter-subject representational similarity analyses, we identified distinct neuropsychological mechanisms between two age groups. Younger adults' frontopolar activity was associated with the advertising credibility, whereas older adults' frontopolar activity was associated with the trustworthiness of the salesperson during deceptive sales. These findings provide insights into age-specific vulnerabilities and may inform tailored consumer fraud prevention strategies targeting younger and older adults separately.

Health messaging often employs gain-framing (highlighting behaviour benefits) or loss-framing (emphasizing nonengagement risks) to promote behaviour change. This study examined how neural responses to gain- and loss-framed messages predict changes in physical activity. We conducted a mega-analysis of raw fMRI and pedometer/accelerometer data from four studies (N = 240) that tracked brain activity during message exposure and real-world physical activity longitudinally. Focusing on brain regions theorized by the Affect-Integration-Motivation framework-the anterior insula, ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, and presupplementary motor area-we found that baseline physical activity levels moderated brain-behaviour relationships in response to message framing. More active individuals increased physical activity post-intervention when these brain regions responded more strongly to loss-framed messages, suggesting that neural sensitivity to inactivity risks may reinforce behaviour maintenance in this group. Conversely, less active individuals increased physical activity when brain responses were stronger to gain-framed messages, indicating that sensitivity to activity benefits may facilitate action initiation in this group. These findings suggest that message effectiveness depends on the interaction between framing, neural processing, and pre-existing behavioural patterns. By linking neurocognitive mechanisms with real-world outcomes, we highlight the importance of personalized, neuroscience-informed health interventions tailored to individual neural and behavioural characteristics to optimize behaviour change strategies.

Although published studies have shown that applying capsaicin to the skin can have an analgesic effect on other parts of the body, the impact of spicy food intake on pain perception and its neurological mechanism remains unclear. Thus, two studies utilizing questionnaires and experiments with event-related potential (ERP) technology were conducted to explore this question. Study 1 recruited 300 adults and found a negative correlation between spicy food cravings and pain perception in daily life. Study 2 involved 45 participants and examined behavioural and ERP responses to pain (including minor pain and moderate pain) stimuli following spicy and control treatments. Results showed that, compared to control treatments, spicy treatments led to shorter reaction times, lower accuracies and pain intensity ratings, less negative emotional responses, smaller N1 and P2 amplitudes, and shorter N1 and P2 latencies, especially for minor-pain stimuli. These findings indicate that spicy food intake may have an analgesic effect.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is known as a central hub involved in affective learning from appetitive/aversive stimuli, as demonstrated in numerous studies examining affective stimuli. We used vmPFC-stimulation to test whether the concept of enhanced affective learning applies to enhanced inhibition of risky decisions and overgeneralized fear. Therefore, we modulated vmPFC-excitability noninvasively via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) using excitatory, inhibitory, and sham stimulation. We re-analysed previously published behavioural and magnetoencephalography data trial-wise to test whether improved learning is the mechanism underlying modulated gambling/fear generalization. Following excitatory vs. sham stimulation, participants gambled more rationally and got better at discriminating safe from threatening stimuli, as indicated by interactions between tDCS and gambling/fear stimuli. Three-way interactions with trial-number suggest that these improvements developed during the experiment. In contrast, in the inhibitory group, these abilities deteriorated over the paradigm. The neural data dovetailed with behavioural effects, in that neural correlates of modulated learning after stimulation also developed over time. Our results indicate an association between vmPFC activity and the ability to learn from appetitive/aversive stimuli. As impaired affective learning is a driving mechanism in mental disorders, these findings identify excitatory vmPFC-tDCS as a potential treatment, especially in combination with psychotherapy.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is known as a central hub involved in affective learning from appetitive/aversive stimuli, as demonstrated in numerous studies examining affective stimuli. We used vmPFC-stimulation to test whether the concept of enhanced affective learning applies to enhanced inhibition of risky decisions and overgeneralized fear. Therefore, we modulated vmPFC-excitability noninvasively via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) using excitatory, inhibitory, and sham stimulation. We re-analysed previously published behavioural and magnetoencephalography data trial-wise to test whether improved learning is the mechanism underlying modulated gambling/fear generalization. Following excitatory vs. sham stimulation, participants gambled more rationally and got better at discriminating safe from threatening stimuli, as indicated by interactions between tDCS and gambling/fear stimuli. Three-way interactions with trial-number suggest that these improvements developed during the experiment. In contrast, in the inhibitory group, these abilities deteriorated over the paradigm. The neural data dovetailed with behavioural effects, in that neural correlates of modulated learning after stimulation also developed over time. Our results indicate an association between vmPFC activity and the ability to learn from appetitive/aversive stimuli. As impaired affective learning is a driving mechanism in mental disorders, these findings identify excitatory vmPFC-tDCS as a potential treatment, especially in combination with psychotherapy.

The study investigated the influence of conformity and obedience on intentions to help a child whose relative had caused harm to the participant's family during historical events of violence. Participants from Belgium, Cambodia, and Rwanda faced different social scenarios with two types of social influence and had to choose whether to respond helpfully. A multi-method and cross-cultural approach combining self-reports, behaviours, decision times (DTs), and electroencephalography (EEG) data was used. Participants explicitly reported being more influenced by authority (obedience) than by a group (conformity), a finding supported by faster DTs when following authority recommendations compared to either a group or an individual alone (compliance). However, behavioural and neural data showed no distinction between obedience and conformity. Behaviourally, authority and group influences exceeded individual influence but did not differ significantly. EEG results revealed higher mid-frontal theta (FMθ) activity for both the authority and the group indicating stronger inhibition of alternative choices compared to individual compliance. These results suggest that the type of measurement impacts the observed influence of authority and conformity, thus posing interesting questions regarding what may influence real behaviours. Variations were observed between countries, highlighting the importance of accounting for cross-cultural differences and avoiding generalization from a single population sample.

Facial expressions are ubiquitous and highly reliable social cues. Decades of research has shown that affective faces undergo facilitated processing across a distributed brain network. However, few studies have examined the multispectral brain dynamics underlying affective face processing, which is surprising given the multiple brain regions and rapid temporal dynamics thought to be involved. Herein, we used magnetoencephalography to derive dynamic functional maps of angry, neutral, and happy face processing in healthy adults. We found stronger theta oscillations shortly after the onset of affective relative to neutral faces (0-250 ms), within distributed ventral visual and parietal cortices, and the anterior hippocampus. Early gamma oscillations (100-275 ms) were strongest for angry faces in the inferior parietal lobule, temporoparietal junction, and presupplementary motor cortex. Finally, beta oscillations (175-575 ms) were stronger for neutral relative to affective expressions in the middle occipital and fusiform cortex. These results are consistent with the literature in regard to the critical brain regions, and delineate a distributed network where multispectral oscillatory dynamics support affective face processing through the rapid merging of low-level visual inputs to interpret the emotional meaning of each facial expression.