Social Cognitive Neuroscience (PSYC 321) Fall 2024 PDF

Social cognitive (neuroscience) PSYC 321 - Fall 2024 TERRY ESKENAZI  Welcome to Social Cognition Meetings: Mo-Wed 13.00 Instructor: Terry Eskenazi [email protected] TA: Dila Falay O ce hours: Mo-Wed 14.45-15.45 KU Hub ffi Materials Ward, J. (2017). T...

Social cognitive (neuroscience) PSYC 321 - Fall 2024 TERRY ESKENAZI  Welcome to Social Cognition Meetings: Mo-Wed 13.00 Instructor: Terry Eskenazi [email protected] TA: Dila Falay O ce hours: Mo-Wed 14.45-15.45 KU Hub ffi Materials Ward, J. (2017). The Student’s Guide to Social Neuroscience. 2nd edition. Routledge. All readings and other materials will be made available on KuHub. Assesments 2 exams: Midterm: 35% Final: 45% Exams will consist of multiple choice, short answer and essay type questions. Place and time TBA In class assignments: 15% In-class discussions: 5% Participating psychology experiments via the subject pool: 3% extra Tentative schedule Week 1 Introduction Week 2 Neuroanatomy and neurscienti c methods: a primer Week 3-4 Evolutionary origins of social cognition Week 5-6 Reading bodies: mirror neurons and action perception Week 7 Reading faces: face and gaze perception Week 8 MIDTERM Week 9 Reading faces: face and gaze perception Week 11-12 Reading minds: theory of mind and autism Week 13 Reading emotions: empathy and psychopathy Week 14 Wrapping it up FINAL EXAM fi QUESTIONS How do we make sense of others’ behaviors? How do we predict others’ behaviours? How do we manage to successfully interact with others? How do we make sense of ourselves? What makes social cognition di erent than cognition in general? Is cognition asocial? ff Topics Evolutionary origins of social intelligence and culture Reading faces Recognizing and understanding emotional expressions Following others’ gaze behavior Reading bodies How do we perceive and understand others’ actions? What are the neural correlates? Mirror neurons How do we coordinate our own actions with those of others? TOPICS Understanding others Understanding emotions and empathy Psychopathy and sociopathy Understanding other’s minds - theory of mind Autism WHAT IS SOCIAL COGNITION? How is social cognition different? Social psychology is concerned with social in uence on cognition, a ect and behaviour. Cognitive psychology studies mental processes. Social cognition focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying social in uence - how new perceive and interpret others’ behaviour. Social (cognitive) neuroscience includes neural mechanisms as another level of explanation. ff fl fl  Cognitive psychology Social psychology Social cognitive neuroscience Neuropsychology Neuroscience Computational science  History Initial research lines within social cognition (70s): face perception, emotion recognition, social categorization  First sparks… Acquired brain damage and social dysfunction Autism - and theory of mind Brain bases of emotions, e.g. fear and aggression (Panksepp et al… ) 2000 - emerged as a separate eld… (Adolphs 1999; Frith and Frith, 1999) Neuroscienti c methodologies (TMS, MRI, EEG, etc.) implemented in studying social cognitive processes. fi fi ❖ ‘We have such large brains in order to socialise.’ Evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar, 2014 ❖ ‘Evolution has made a bet that the best thing for our brains to do in any spare moment is to get ready for what comes in social terms.’ Emily Smith, 2013 Social brain  Oxytocin: a neuropeptide, Intranasal administration synthesized in the brain, and increases prosocial behavior a ects other parts of the and mind reading brain as well as the endocrine system through the blood Mindreading/mentalizing/ stream. theory of mind: ability to infer others’ mental states (beliefs, Associated with social intentions, desires) behaviors such as attachment and social bonding, maternal care ff  Mindreading and neural correlates Oxytocin modulates activity in this network Is this a good idea? What does adding neural mechanisms as another level of explanation buy us? Do we actually need it? Should we stick to the social level to understand social processes? Perhaps the brain is a blank slate and it’s shaped by social interactions and culture. Or are we heading towards reductionism? reductionism: notion that one level of explanation will replace the others over time Love = oxytocin? - circularity problem It’s crucial to aim for a mechanistic explanation Multi-level approach This e ect of oxytocin on social brain is further modulated by context, as well as individual di erences… Oxy. enhances trust - but if the partner is believed to be reliable (Declerck, 2010). Social context Individual differences Social brain Oxytocin ff ff  Reverse inferencing Amygdala response in social situations. It’s all in the interpretation: “if amygdala is involved then the person must be fearful.” Can be tricky… because we don’t know all the ways in which di erent structures function ff It’s all in the brain… Some social processes are shaped by biological constraints, but others by societal factors and culture. BRAIN -> SOCIETY What causes culture? Cognitive explanation - ability to transfer skills Neural explanation - neural response to in-group members… Society shapes the brain, and the brain shapes the society. SOCIETY -> BRAIN Alternative Cultural context What’s the best level of ingroup/outgroup explanation? How to bridge di erent levels of Immediate social context explanation? Cognition Integrating di erent measures (questionnaires, reaction Neural system times, neural response) Physiology Cause or e ect? Genes Aim for a mechanistic explanation of behavior! ff ff ff Neo-phrenology??? DEBATE: Is social brain special, distinct from all other brain functions (e.g. planning, memory, walking… ) ‘YES!’ camp: modularity/domain speci city (Fodor, 1983) Module: computational routine sensitive to particular inputs (stimuli) and generates particular outputs (response) Does social brain respond ONLY to social stimuli?? Fusiform gyrus and faces MPFC and mentalizing fi  ‘NO!’ camp: Are we social because of our brain size - which also Social brain is not at all made us generally specialized for social smarter? stimuli and social responses Or is our brain bigger because of our social Neuro-cognitive challenges? mechanisms involved in social behavior also Social and non-social subserve non-social cognition evolved in aspects of cognition parallel, mutually shaping each other…  Middleground… Fusiform gyrus… MPFC… Perhaps mechanisms (modules) that have to do with social behavior are special because they deal with a special kind of stimulus (people) which is way more unpredictable than other categories. Mechanisms Implicit vs explicit distinction Dual system model of cognition Automatic vs controlled processes  Learning Change in behavior through experience. Increase predictive power Associative learning E-E pairings Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning S-S pairings —> R Instrumental learning (aka operant conditioning) R-S mapping —> R Reinforcement/punishment  (Social) learning Observational learning About places, e.g. gaze following About objects About actions About agents (Social) learning Instrumental learning - social reward (Social) learning Copying behavior Mirroring (of actions) Copying emotions Emotion contagion Empathy (Social) learning Getting complex Gaze following Recognize agent Take their perspective Assess the value of outcomes