Lecture 8 - Social Neuroscience: Understanding others

The Social Brain: Critical Perspectives on Science, Society and Neurodiversity

Richard Ramsey

Today


Part 1

  • Social Neuroscience: Understanding others


Part 2

  • Read articles and discuss



Understanding others

For an overview, See Chapter 6 from Ward (2022)

Overview


  • Recap “Social Brain” circuits

  • Background

  • Cognitive and brain systems

    • Mirror neuron system
    • Theory of mind network

Recap social brain circuits

Social brain circuits


Background

Mindreading?


Beliefs about beliefs


Spontaneous













Why is it important?

prediction

Why is it important?

manipulation

Why is it important?

joint action

Cognitive and brain systems

  • Mirror neuron system
  • Theory of mind network

Mirror neurons

Mirror neurons in macaques


F5 and PF

Mirror neuron system in humans


The direct matching hypothesis

Theory of mind

ToM = reasoning about mental states

Le Tricheur à l’as de carreau by Georges de la Tour (c. 1635)

Theory of mind development

The false belief task

Brain circuits


  • mPFC: person knowledge

  • TPJ: false belief, perspective taking

  • TP: social scripts, emotion, convergence ?

Caution

Mirroring and theory of mind

Mirroring and theory of mind


  • Complementary roles in social cognition.

  • How do they influence each other?

  • Lots of open and unanswered questions.

  • Essay questions?

Take a break

Part 2 - Read and discuss

Discussion material


References

Adolphs, R. (2009). The Social Brain: Neural Basis of Social Knowledge. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 693–716. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163514
de Lange, F. P., Spronk, M., Willems, R. M., Toni, I., & Bekkering, H. (2008). Complementary Systems for Understanding Action Intentions. 18(6), 454–457. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982208002443
di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992). Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study. Exp Brain Res, 91(1), 176–180. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&dopt=r&uid=1301372
Fogassi, L., Ferrari, P. F., Gesierich, B., Rozzi, S., Chersi, F., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005). Parietal lobe: From action organization to intention understanding. Science, 308(5722), 662–667. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=15860620
Frischen, A., Bayliss, A. P., & Tipper, S. P. (2007). Gaze cueing of attention: Visual attention, social cognition, and individual differences. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 694–724. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.4.694
Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action recognition in the premotor cortex. Brain, 119, 593–609. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&dopt=r&uid=8800951
Gazzola, V., & Keysers, C. (2009). The Observation and Execution of Actions Share Motor and Somatosensory Voxels in all Tested Subjects: Single-Subject Analyses of Unsmoothed fMRI Data. Cereb. Cortex, 19(6), 1239–1255. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhn181
Keysers, C., & Gazzola, V. (2007). Integrating simulation and theory of mind: From self to social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(5), 194–196. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VH9-4N6FP38-1/2/c0d4d005fb34fcc551931b6a48cacc6a
Rizzolatti, G., Fogassi, L., & Gallese, V. (2001). Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the understanding and imitation of action. Nat Rev Neurosci, 2(9), 661–70. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&dopt=r&uid=11533734
Schaafsma, S. M., Pfaff, D. W., Spunt, R. P., & Adolphs, R. (2015). Deconstructing and reconstructing theory of mind. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(2), 65–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.11.007
Schurz, M., Radua, J., Aichhorn, M., Richlan, F., & Perner, J. (2014). Fractionating theory of mind: A meta-analysis of functional brain imaging studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 42(0), 9–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.01.009
Stanley, D. A., & Adolphs, R. (2013). Toward a Neural Basis for Social Behavior. Neuron, 80(3), 816–826. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0896627313009902
Van Overwalle, F. (2009). Social cognition and the brain: A meta-analysis. Hum. Brain Mapp., 30, 829.
Ward, J. (2022). The Student’s Guide to Social Neuroscience (3rd ed.). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003057697
Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition, 13(1), 103–128. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=6681741

Acknowledgements