scholarly journals Humans Use Forward Thinking to Exert Social Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soojung Na ◽  
Dongil Chung ◽  
Andreas Hula ◽  
Jennifer Jung ◽  
Vincenzo G. Fiore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Subjective Beliefs ◽  
Downstream Effects ◽  
The Social

SummarySocial control, the ability to exert influence over others, is critical in interpersonal interactions yet uninvestigated. Here, we used functional neuroimaging and a social exchange paradigm in which people’s current choices either did, or did not, influence their partners’ proposals in the future. Computational modeling revealed that participants used forward thinking and calculated the downstream effects of their current actions regardless of the controllability of the social environment. Furthermore, greater levels of estimated control correlated with better performance in controllable interactions and less illusory beliefs about control in uncontrollable interactions. Neural instantiation of trial-by-trial values of social controllability were tracked in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), striatum, and insula for controllable interactions, but only in vmPFC for uncontrollable interactions. These findings demonstrate that humans use forward thinking, a strategy similar to model-based planning, to guide social choices; and that subjective beliefs about social controllability might not be grounded in reality.

Social bonding and music: Evidence from lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy M. Belfi
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neurobiological Model ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The Social ◽  
Emotional Effects

Abstract The music and social bonding (MSB) hypothesis suggests that damage to brain regions in the proposed neurobiological model, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), would disrupt the social and emotional effects of music. This commentary evaluates prior research in persons with vmPFC damage in light of the predictions put forth by the MSB hypothesis.

scholarly journals Cognitive regulation alters social and dietary choice by changing attribute representations in domain-general and domain-specific brain circuits

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Tusche ◽  
Cendri A Hutcherson
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Cognitive Regulation ◽  
Brain Circuits ◽  
Specific Attribute ◽  
Dietary Choice ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

Are some people generally more successful using cognitive regulation or does it depend on the choice domain? Why? We combined behavioral computational modeling and multivariate decoding of fMRI responses to identify neural loci of regulation-related shifts in value representations across goals and domains (dietary or altruistic choice). Surprisingly, regulatory goals did not alter integrative value representations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which represented all choice-relevant attributes across goals and domains. Instead, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) flexibly encoded goal-consistent values and predicted regulatory success for the majority of choice-relevant attributes, using attribute-specific neural codes. We also identified domain-specific exceptions: goal-dependent encoding of prosocial attributes localized to precuneus and temporo-parietal junction (not DLPFC). Our results suggest that cognitive regulation operated by changing specific attribute representations (not integrated values). Evidence of domain-general and domain-specific neural loci reveals important divisions of labor, explaining when and why regulatory success generalizes (or doesn’t) across contexts and domains.

scholarly journals Social framing effects in decision making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payam Piray ◽  
Roshan Cools ◽  
Ivan Toni
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Framing Effect ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Individual Value

Human decisions are known to be strongly influenced by the manner in which options are presented, the "framing effect". Here, we ask whether decision-makers are also influenced by how advice from other knowledgeable agents are framed, a "social framing effect". Concretely, do students learn better from a teacher who often frames advice by emphasizing appetitive outcomes, or do they learn better from another teacher who usually emphasizes avoiding options that can be harmful to their progress? We study the computational and neural mechanisms by which framing of advice affect decision-making, social learning, and trust. We found that human participants are more likely to trust and follow an adviser who often uses an appetitive frame for advice compared with another one who often uses an aversive frame. This social framing effect is implemented through a modulation of the integrative abilities of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. At the time of choice, this region combines information learned via personal experiences of reward with social information, but the combination differs depending on the social framing of advice. Personally-acquired information is weighted more strongly when dealing with an adviser who uses an aversive frame. The findings suggest that social advice is systematically incorporated into our decisions, while being affected by biases similar to those influencing individual value-based learning.

scholarly journals Increased ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity in adolescence benefits prosocial reinforcement learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Westhoff ◽  
Neeltje E. Blankenstein ◽  
Elisabeth Schreuders ◽  
Eveline A. Crone ◽  
Anna C. K. van Duijvenvoorde
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Probabilistic Reinforcement ◽  
Neuroimaging Study

AbstractLearning which of our behaviors benefit others contributes to social bonding and being liked by others. An important period for the development of (pro)social behavior is adolescence, in which peers become more salient and relationships intensify. It is, however, unknown how learning to benefit others develops across adolescence and what the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms are. In this functional neuroimaging study, we assessed learning for self and others (i.e., prosocial learning) and the concurring neural tracking of prediction errors across adolescence (ages 9-21, N=74). Participants performed a two-choice probabilistic reinforcement learning task in which outcomes resulted in monetary consequences for themselves, an unknown other, or no one. Participants from all ages were able to learn for themselves and others, but learning for others showed a more protracted developmental trajectory. Prediction errors for self were observed in the ventral striatum and showed no age-related differences. However, prediction error coding for others was specifically observed in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and showed age-related increases. These results reveal insights into the computational mechanisms of learning for others across adolescence, and highlight that learning for self and others show different age-related patterns.

scholarly journals Reading between the lines: Listener’s vmPFC simulates speaker cooperative choices in communication games

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. eabe6276
Author(s):  
Qingtian Mi ◽  
Cong Wang ◽  
Colin F. Camerer ◽  
Lusha Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Reference Resolution ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Communication Games ◽  
Generative Mechanism

Humans have a remarkable ability to understand what is and is not being said by conversational partners. It has been hypothesized that listeners decode the intended meaning of a communicative signal by assuming speakers speak cooperatively, rationally simulating the speaker’s choice process and inverting it to recover the speaker’s most probable meaning. We investigated whether and how rational simulations of speakers are represented in the listener’s brain, by combining referential communication games with functional neuroimaging. We show that listeners’ ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes the probabilistic inference of what a cooperative speaker should say given a communicative goal and context, even when such inferences are irrelevant for reference resolution. The listener’s striatum encodes the amount of update on intended meaning, consistent with inverting a simulated mental model. These findings suggest a neural generative mechanism, subserved by the frontal-striatal circuits, that underlies our ability to understand communicative and, more generally, social actions.

scholarly journals The resistance of the social landscape: “barbarism” and “civilization” in the social space

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-22
Author(s):  
Dmitry O. Trufanov
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Normative Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Multiple Alternative ◽  
Peripheral Areas

This article discusses the concept of “social landscape” and studies the structure of the social landscape and its elements’ functions. The author analyzes the relationship between the concepts of “geographical landscape”, “socio-cultural landscape”, and “social landscape”. The defining feature of the social landscape is the value-normative structure that regulates the social relations of actors who act in the social space of a particular location. Changing this structure leads to the movement of the social landscape and its transition from one state to another. In the social landscape, the author identifies such structural elements as the center and the periphery, where the center is associated with the value-normative institutions of the state, and the periphery is expressed in the form of multiple alternative value-normative structures and identities that are formed in local communities. From the position of state-centered discourse, the center of the social landscape is associated with civilization and civilizational development, while the periphery is associated with barbarism in its modern interpretation. Barbarism in social space is a set of practices of social behavior caused by alternative value-normative structures that go beyond state institutions. Areas of barbarism in the social landscape are associated with an increased level of deviation, weakened social control, and weak penetration of state norms and values. Such areas carry risks of destruction of value-normative structures of the center of the social landscape. The resistance of the social landscape is a barrier of communication that prevents the penetration of value-normative structures of the center in the peripheral areas. Barriers are associated with the existence of alternative state value-normative structures and identities. The areas of barbarism and civilization in the social landscape are in a relationship of complementarity and perform a number of necessary functions in relation to each other. Such functions are the formation and maintenance of socio-cultural identity, strengthening and development of forms of social control, and the function of social exchange.

Scientists as comedians: The effects of humor on perceptions of scientists and scientific messages

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-418
Author(s):  
Sara K. Yeo ◽  
Ashley A. Anderson ◽  
Amy B. Becker ◽  
Michael A. Cacciatore
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Video Clip ◽  
Downstream Effects ◽  
The Social

Humor has been recommended for scientists looking to conduct communication activities despite relatively little empirical evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. Here, we examine the social environment of a joke through a two-condition experimental design that manipulates the presence or absence of audience laughter. Specifically, we examine how humor experienced from viewing a video clip of a science comedian embedded in an online survey can have downstream effects on whether people view comedy as a valid source of scientific information. We found that respondents who perceived more humor in the video clip (i.e. those in the condition with audience laughter) had more positive views about comedy as a valid source of scientific information. Interestingly, this relationship was mediated by perceived expertise, not likability, of the scientist engaging in comedy.

scholarly journals Tuning of brain–autonomic coupling by prior threat exposure: Implications for internalizing problems in Mexican-origin adolescents

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 1127-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Weissman ◽  
Amanda E. Guyer ◽  
Emilio Ferrer ◽  
Richard W. Robins ◽  
Paul D. Hastings
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Internalizing Problems ◽  
Parasympathetic Nervous System ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Mexican Origin ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia

AbstractExposure to threat increases the risk for internalizing problems in adolescence. Deficits in integrating bodily cues into representations of emotion are thought to contribute to internalizing problems. Given the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in regulating bodily responses and integrating them into representations of emotional states, coordination between activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and autonomic nervous system responses may be influenced by past threat exposure with consequences for the emergence of internalizing problems. A sample of 179 Mexican-origin adolescents (88 female) reported on neighborhood and school crime, peer victimization, and discrimination when they were 10–16 years old. At age 17, participants underwent a functional neuroimaging scan during which they viewed pictures of emotional faces while respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance responses were measured. Adolescents also reported symptoms of internalizing problems. Greater exposure to threats across adolescence was associated with more internalizing problems. Threat exposure was also associated with stronger negative coupling between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and RSA. Stronger negative ventromedial prefrontal cortex–RSA coupling was associated with fewer internalizing problems. These results suggest the degree of coordinated activity between the brain and parasympathetic nervous system is both enhanced by threat experiences and decreased in adolescents with more internalizing problems.

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