Social cognitive and affective neuroscience最新文献

Observing negative and positive valence virtual stimuli can influence the onlookers' subjective and brain reactivity. However, the relationship between vicarious experiences, observer's perspective-taking, and cerebral activity remains underexplored. To address this gap, we asked 24 healthy participants to passively observe pleasant, painful, and neutral stimuli delivered to a virtual hand seen from a first-person (1PP) or third-person perspective (3PP) while undergoing time and time-frequency EEG recording. Participants reported a stronger sense of ownership over the virtual hand seen from a 1PP, rated pain and touch valence appropriately, and more intense than the neutral ones. Distinct EEG patterns emerged across early (N2, early posterior negativity, EPN), late (late positive potential, LPP) event-related potentials, and EEG power. The N2 and EPN components showed greater amplitudes for pain and pleasure than neutral stimuli, particularly in 1PP. The LPP component exhibited lower amplitudes for pleasure than pain and neutral stimuli. Furthermore, theta-band power increased, and alpha power decreased for pain and pleasure stimuli viewed from a 1PP vs. 3PP perspective. In the ultra-late time window, we observed decreased theta, alpha, and beta-band power specifically associated with pleasure stimuli. Our study provides novel evidence that perspective-taking modulates the temporal dynamics of vicarious pain and pleasure.

Observing negative and positive valence virtual stimuli can influence the onlookers' subjective and brain reactivity. However, the relationship between vicarious experiences, observer's perspective-taking, and cerebral activity remains underexplored. To address this gap, we asked 24 healthy participants to passively observe pleasant, painful, and neutral stimuli delivered to a virtual hand seen from a first-person (1PP) or third-person perspective (3PP) while undergoing time and time-frequency EEG recording. Participants reported a stronger sense of ownership over the virtual hand seen from a 1PP, rated pain and touch valence appropriately, and more intense than the neutral ones. Distinct EEG patterns emerged across early (N2, early posterior negativity, EPN), late (late positive potential, LPP) event-related potentials, and EEG power. The N2 and EPN components showed greater amplitudes for pain and pleasure than neutral stimuli, particularly in 1PP. The LPP component exhibited lower amplitudes for pleasure than pain and neutral stimuli. Furthermore, theta-band power increased, and alpha power decreased for pain and pleasure stimuli viewed from a 1PP vs. 3PP perspective. In the ultra-late time window, we observed decreased theta, alpha, and beta-band power specifically associated with pleasure stimuli. Our study provides novel evidence that perspective-taking modulates the temporal dynamics of vicarious pain and pleasure.

Implicit and automatic gender stereotyping and its neural correlates have been extensively investigated in language. This study aimed to extend this investigation to human face processing. We recorded response times (RTs) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to a target third-person singular pronoun (lui 'he' or lei 'she') or face (male, female), preceded by grammatically marked or stereotypically associated words (e.g. laureata 'graduated', badante 'caregiver'). Participants gender-categorized the target pronoun or face. The RTs showed a priming effect for the grammatical condition for pronouns and both grammatical and stereotypical conditions for faces. At the ERP level, feminine pronouns elicited a larger P300 and LPP (limited to men) when preceded by grammatically masculine than feminine primes. Faces elicited a larger N400, P300, and LPP (limited to women for female faces) when preceded by grammatically gender-incongruent than -congruent primes. Critically, faces showed an ERP gender stereotype asymmetry: larger N400 to male faces, and larger P300 to female faces, when preceded by stereotypically gender-incongruent than -congruent primes. This study shows that faces are influenced by gender stereotypes similarly and more strongly than linguistic stimuli. Given the multidimensionality of faces, this study is a gate-opener for future studies on the interplay between different stereotypes.

Implicit and automatic gender stereotyping and its neural correlates have been extensively investigated in language. This study aimed to extend this investigation to human face processing. We recorded response times (RTs) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to a target third-person singular pronoun (lui 'he' or lei 'she') or face (male, female), preceded by grammatically marked or stereotypically associated words (e.g. laureata 'graduated', badante 'caregiver'). Participants gender-categorized the target pronoun or face. The RTs showed a priming effect for the grammatical condition for pronouns and both grammatical and stereotypical conditions for faces. At the ERP level, feminine pronouns elicited a larger P300 and LPP (limited to men) when preceded by grammatically masculine than feminine primes. Faces elicited a larger N400, P300, and LPP (limited to women for female faces) when preceded by grammatically gender-incongruent than -congruent primes. Critically, faces showed an ERP gender stereotype asymmetry: larger N400 to male faces, and larger P300 to female faces, when preceded by stereotypically gender-incongruent than -congruent primes. This study shows that faces are influenced by gender stereotypes similarly and more strongly than linguistic stimuli. Given the multidimensionality of faces, this study is a gate-opener for future studies on the interplay between different stereotypes.

Older adults are frequent victims of scams, possibly due to biases in how they decide whom to trust. Indeed, older adults' decisions are more likely to be influenced by how generous a person looks and less so by their memory for how this person behaved. Here, we leverage functional magnetic resonance imaging data to clarify the mechanism by which this age-dependent difference emerges. Eighty-six participants learned how much of a $10 endowment an individual shared in a dictator game, and then made decisions about whom to play another round with. As we hypothesized, older adults did not reliably prefer to re-engage with people who had proven themselves to be generous. This bias was driven by a combination of worse associative memory for how much each person shared, linked to decreased medial temporal lobe activity during encoding, and decreased inhibition of irrelevant facial features, linked to reduced activity in the inferior frontal gyrus. Taken together, our findings highlight 'age-related differences' in the ability to both encode relevant information and adaptively deploy it in service of social decisions.

Older adults are frequent victims of scams, possibly due to biases in how they decide whom to trust. Indeed, older adults' decisions are more likely to be influenced by how generous a person looks and less so by their memory for how this person behaved. Here, we leverage functional magnetic resonance imaging data to clarify the mechanism by which this age-dependent difference emerges. Eighty-six participants learned how much of a $10 endowment an individual shared in a dictator game, and then made decisions about whom to play another round with. As we hypothesized, older adults did not reliably prefer to re-engage with people who had proven themselves to be generous. This bias was driven by a combination of worse associative memory for how much each person shared, linked to decreased medial temporal lobe activity during encoding, and decreased inhibition of irrelevant facial features, linked to reduced activity in the inferior frontal gyrus. Taken together, our findings highlight 'age-related differences' in the ability to both encode relevant information and adaptively deploy it in service of social decisions.

Loneliness, a distressing emotional response to perceived deficiencies in social interactions, has seen a marked increase in prevalence since the COVID-19 pandemic. While previous research has linked loneliness in older adults to affective disorders and cognitive decline, its impact on language comprehension-a crucial aspect of social interaction-remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining the effects of loneliness on semantic retrieval in healthy older adults. Using event-related potentials, we measured participants' neural responses as they verified category membership across three conditions: high typicality, low typicality, and category violations. We found that loneliness was negatively correlated with an N400 amplitude reduction for low-typicality items compared to category violations. Moreover, individuals who reported a high level of loneliness exhibited attenuated and delayed N400 effects within more restricted time windows compared to their less lonely counterparts. These results indicate that loneliness impairs semantic memory retrieval in older adults, potentially compromising language comprehension and further exacerbating social isolation. This research highlights the detrimental impact of loneliness on linguistic abilities, which may contribute to a vicious cycle of increasing social isolation and deepening loneliness.

Loneliness, a distressing emotional response to perceived deficiencies in social interactions, has seen a marked increase in prevalence since the COVID-19 pandemic. While previous research has linked loneliness in older adults to affective disorders and cognitive decline, its impact on language comprehension-a crucial aspect of social interaction-remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining the effects of loneliness on semantic retrieval in healthy older adults. Using event-related potentials, we measured participants' neural responses as they verified category membership across three conditions: high typicality, low typicality, and category violations. We found that loneliness was negatively correlated with an N400 amplitude reduction for low-typicality items compared to category violations. Moreover, individuals who reported a high level of loneliness exhibited attenuated and delayed N400 effects within more restricted time windows compared to their less lonely counterparts. These results indicate that loneliness impairs semantic memory retrieval in older adults, potentially compromising language comprehension and further exacerbating social isolation. This research highlights the detrimental impact of loneliness on linguistic abilities, which may contribute to a vicious cycle of increasing social isolation and deepening loneliness.

Moral beauty, reflected in one's actions, and facial beauty both affect how we are judged. Here, we investigated how moral and facial beauty interact to affect social judgments and emotional responses, employing event-related brain potentials (ERPs). All participants (female) associated positive, neutral, or negative verbal information with faces scoring high or low on attractiveness and performed ratings of the faces as manipulation checks. In a separate test phase, the faces were presented again, and participants made valenced social judgments of the persons. Results show a dominance of moral beauty in valenced social judgments as well as ERPs related to reflexive and evaluative emotional responses (early posterior negativity and late positive potential), whereas facial attractiveness mattered little. In contrast, facial attractiveness affected visual processing (N170). Similarly, relatively shallow impressions of attractiveness and likability that require no knowledge about the person were influenced by both facial attractiveness and social-emotional information. This pattern of dominant effects of social-emotional information regardless of attractiveness shows that when it comes to our emotional responses and social judgments, moral beauty is what matters most, even in the face of physical beauty.

Moral beauty, reflected in one's actions, and facial beauty both affect how we are judged. Here, we investigated how moral and facial beauty interact to affect social judgments and emotional responses, employing event-related brain potentials (ERPs). All participants (female) associated positive, neutral, or negative verbal information with faces scoring high or low on attractiveness and performed ratings of the faces as manipulation checks. In a separate test phase, the faces were presented again, and participants made valenced social judgments of the persons. Results show a dominance of moral beauty in valenced social judgments as well as ERPs related to reflexive and evaluative emotional responses (early posterior negativity and late positive potential), whereas facial attractiveness mattered little. In contrast, facial attractiveness affected visual processing (N170). Similarly, relatively shallow impressions of attractiveness and likability that require no knowledge about the person were influenced by both facial attractiveness and social-emotional information. This pattern of dominant effects of social-emotional information regardless of attractiveness shows that when it comes to our emotional responses and social judgments, moral beauty is what matters most, even in the face of physical beauty.