Social cognition, brain networks and schizophrenia

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.-H. LEE ◽  
T. F. D. FARROW ◽  
S. A. SPENCE ◽  
P. W. R. WOODRUFF
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Shed Light

Background. A better understanding of the neural basis of social cognition including mindreading (or theory of mind) and empathy might help to explain some deficits in social functioning in people with schizophrenia. Our aim was to review neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies on social cognition, as they may shed light on the neural mechanisms of social cognition and its dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia.Method. A selective literature review was undertaken.Results. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies suggest convergence upon specific networks for mindreading and empathy (the temporal cortex, amygdala and the prefrontal cortex). The frontal lobe is likely to play a central role in enabling social cognition, but mindreading and empathic abilities may require relatively different weighting of subcomponents within the same frontal-temporal social cognition network.Conclusions. Disturbances in social cognition may represent an abnormal interaction between frontal lobe and its functionally connected cortical and subcortical areas. Future studies should seek to explore the heterogeneity of social dysfunction within schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Examining the Neural Basis of Congruent and Incongruent Configural Contexts during Associative Retrieval

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 1796-1812
Author(s):  
Courtney R. Gerver ◽  
Amy A. Overman ◽  
Harini J. Babu ◽  
Chloe E. Hultman ◽  
Nancy A. Dennis
Keyword(s):  
Information Transfer ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Critical Determinant ◽  
Visual Cortices ◽  
Parietal Cortices ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Encoding And Retrieval

Disrupting the configural context, or relative organization and orientation of paired stimuli, between encoding and retrieval negatively impacts memory. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses, we examined the effect of retaining and manipulating the configural context on neural mechanisms supporting associative retrieval. Behavioral results showed participants had significantly higher hit rates for recollecting pairs in a contextually congruent, versus incongruent, configuration. In addition, contextual congruency between memory phases was a critical determinant to characterizing both the magnitude and patterns of neural activation within visual and parietal cortices. Regions within visual cortices also exhibited higher correlations between patterns of activity at encoding and retrieval when configural context was congruent across memory phases than incongruent. Collectively, these findings shed light on how manipulating configural context between encoding and retrieval affects associative recognition, with changes in the configural context leading to reductions in information transfer and increases in task difficulty.

scholarly journals A common neural system mediating two different forms of social judgement

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1183-1192 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Hall ◽  
H. C. Whalley ◽  
J. W. McKirdy ◽  
R. Sprengelmeyer ◽  
I. M. Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural System ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Judgement ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Social Tasks

BackgroundA wide range of neuropsychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), are associated with impairments in social function. Previous studies have shown that individuals with schizophrenia and ASD have deficits in making a wide range of social judgements from faces, including decisions related to threat (such as judgements of approachability) and decisions not related to physical threat (such as judgements of intelligence). We have investigated healthy control participants to see whether there is a common neural system activated during such social decisions, on the basis that deficits in this system may contribute to the impairments seen in these disorders.MethodWe investigated the neural basis of social decision making during judgements of approachability and intelligence from faces in 24 healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used conjunction analysis to identify common brain regions activated during both tasks.ResultsActivation of the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, inferior prefrontal cortex and cerebellum was seen during performance of both social tasks, compared to simple gender judgements from the same stimuli. Task-specific activations were present in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the intelligence task and in the inferior and middle temporal cortex in the approachability task.ConclusionsThe present study identified a common network of brain regions activated during the performance of two different forms of social judgement from faces. Dysfunction of this network is likely to contribute to the broad-ranging deficits in social function seen in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and ASD.

scholarly journals Neural basis of basic composition: what we have learned from the red–boat studies and their extensions

2019 ◽  
Vol 375 (1791) ◽  
pp. 20190299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liina Pylkkänen
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Feature Space ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Mechanistic Models ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Hypothesis Space ◽  
Functional Understanding ◽  
Generative System

Language is our mind's most powerful generative system for the expression of meaning and thought. What are the neural mechanisms of our ability to compose complex meanings from simpler representations? This question is impossible to answer unless we decompose the notion of ‘meaning composition’ in some theoretically guided way and then begin to assess the extent to which brain activity tracks the posited subroutines. Here, I summarize results from a body of MEG research that has begun to address this question from the ground up, first focusing on simple combinations of two words. The work sets off with a hypothesis space offered by theoretical linguistics, positing syntactic and logico-semantic composition as the main combinatory routines, but then reveals that the most consistent and prominent reflection of composition, localized in the left anterior temporal cortex at 200–250 ms, cannot be described with this toolkit. Instead, this activity tracks a much more conceptually driven process, robustly sensitive to the density of the conceptual feature space of the composing items. I will describe our functional understanding of this activity and how it may operate within a broader ‘combinatory network.’ This article is part of the theme issue ‘Towards mechanistic models of meaning composition’.

scholarly journals Dopamine and noradrenaline modulation of goal-directed behaviour in prefrontal areas: Toward a division of labour?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan-Carlos Cerpa ◽  
Etienne Coutureau ◽  
Shauna Parkes
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Action Control ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Dopaminergic Pathway ◽  
Noradrenergic Innervation ◽  
Noradrenergic Modulation ◽  
Shed Light

The prefrontal cortex is considered to be at the core of goal-directed behaviours. Notably, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is known to play an important role in learning action-outcome associations, as well as in detecting changes in this contingency. Previous studies have also highlighted a specific engagement of the dopaminergic pathway innervating the mPFC in adapting to changes in action causality. While previous research on goal-directed actions has primarily focused on the mPFC region, recent findings have revealed a distinct and specific role of the ventral and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (vlOFC). Indeed, vlOFC is not necessary to learn about action-outcome associations but appears specifically involved when outcome identity is unexpectedly changed. Unlike the mPFC, the vlOFC does not receive a strong dopaminergic innervation. However, it receives a dense noradrenergic innervation which might indicate a crucial role for this neuromodulator. In addition, several lines of evidence highlight a role for noradrenaline in adapting to changes in the environment. We therefore propose that the vlOFC’s function in action control might be under the strong influence of the noradrenergic system. In the present paper, we review anatomical and functional evidence consistent with this proposal and suggest a direction for future studies that aims to shed light on the orbitofrontal mechanisms for flexible action control. Specifically, we suggest that dopaminergic modulation in the mPFC and noradrenergic modulation in the vlOFC may underlie distinct processes related to updating one’s actions.

Alcohol reduces the activity of somatostatin interneurons in the mouse prefrontal cortex: a neural basis for its disinhibitory effect?

2021 ◽  
pp. 108501
Author(s):  
Miao Li ◽  
David Cabrera-Garcia ◽  
Michael C. Salling ◽  
Edmund Au ◽  
Guang Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Basis

scholarly journals The human mirror neuron system—A common neural basis for social cognition?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie N. L. Schmidt ◽  
Joachim Hass ◽  
Peter Kirsch ◽  
Daniela Mier
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
System A

Neural basis of auditory expectation within temporal cortex

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 2245-2250 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Nazimek ◽  
M.D. Hunter ◽  
R. Hoskin ◽  
I. Wilkinson ◽  
P.W. Woodruff
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Neural Basis

scholarly journals Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suhail Matar ◽  
Julien Dirani ◽  
Alec Marantz ◽  
Liina Pylkkänen
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Conceptual Combination ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Left Posterior ◽  
Vary Structure

AbstractDuring language comprehension, the brain processes not only word meanings, but also the grammatical structure—the “syntax”—that strings words into phrases and sentences. Yet the neural basis of syntax remains contentious, partly due to the elusiveness of experimental designs that vary structure independently of meaning-related variables. Here, we exploit Arabic’s grammatical properties, which enable such a design. We collected magnetoencephalography (MEG) data while participants read the same noun-adjective expressions with zero, one, or two contiguously-written definite articles (e.g., ‘chair purple’; ‘the-chair purple’; ‘the-chair the-purple’), representing equivalent concepts, but with different levels of syntactic complexity (respectively, indefinite phrases: ‘a purple chair’; sentences: ‘The chair is purple.’; definite phrases: ‘the purple chair’). We expected regions processing syntax to respond differently to simple versus complex structures. Single-word controls (‘chair’/‘purple’) addressed definiteness-based accounts. In noun-adjective expressions, syntactic complexity only modulated activity in the left posterior temporal lobe (LPTL), ~ 300 ms after each word’s onset: indefinite phrases induced more MEG-measured positive activity. The effects disappeared in single-word tokens, ruling out non-syntactic interpretations. In contrast, left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) activation was driven by meaning. Overall, the results support models implicating the LPTL in structure building and the LATL in early stages of conceptual combination.

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