Social Cognition and Poverty/Slavery
Explicit and implicit issues in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of social inequality. D'Angiulli A, Lipina SJ, Olesinska A. Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Abstract The appearance of developmental cognitive neuroscience (DCN) in the socioeconomic status (SES) research arena is hugely transformative, but challenging. We review challenges rooted in the implicit and explicit assumptions informing this newborn field. We provide balanced theoretical alternatives on how hypothesized psychological processes map onto the brain (e.g., problem of localization) and how experimental phenomena at multiple levels of analysis (e.g., behavior, cognition and the brain) could be related. We therefore examine unclear issues regarding the existing perspectives on poverty and their relationships with low SES, the evidence of low-SES adaptive functioning, historical precedents of the "alternate pathways" (neuroplasticity) interpretation of learning disabilities related to low-SES and the notion of deficit, issues of "normativity" and validity in findings of neurocognitive differences between children from different SES, and finally alternative interpretations of the complex relationship between IQ and SES. Particularly, we examine the extent to which the available laboratory results may be interpreted as showing that cognitive performance in low-SES children reflects cognitive and behavioral deficits as a result of growing up in specific environmental or cultural contexts, and how the experimental findings should be interpreted for the design of different types of interventions-particularly those related to educational practices-or translated to the public-especially the media. Although a cautionary tone permeates many studies, still, a potential deficit attribution-i.e., low-SES is associated with cognitive and behavioral developmental deficits-seems almost an inevitable implicit issue with ethical implications. Finally, we sketch the agenda for an ecological DCN, suggesting recommendations to advance the field, specifically, to minimize equivocal divulgation and maximize ethically responsible translation.
Conceivability and Apparent Possibility DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199565818.003.0015 Why do we tend to ascribe possibility to what we can imagine? One strategy for answering that question involves the thought that, just as sensory episodes often involve its seeming to us as though the world is certain ways, so imaginings involve its seeming to us that what we have imagined is possible. This chapter argues that while some imaginings do feature appearances of possibility, very many others do not; and it explores the broader relevance of its conclusions for modal epistemology. (Note: I know this is not neuroscience, but I’m including it in case it can provide a theoretical framework to accommodate the neuroscience).
WITH EXTREME OUT-GROUP MEMBERS DISRUPTS DEHUMANIZED PERCEPTION Alexandra Cohen, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences; Lasana T. Harris, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University-
ABSTRACT: Social neuroscience research demonstrates that extreme out-group members, such as the homeless, suffer dehumanized perception—people fail to spontaneously infer their mental states. The neural correlates of dehumanized perception in response to images of extreme out-group members like the homeless consist of less activity in the social cognition network—including parts of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporal lobe—along with increased activity in the amygdala and insula, subcortical regions implicated in social bias and disgust (Harris & Fiske, 2006). Although the reduced social cognition network response is malleable in the context of preference inferences when viewing the pictures (Harris & Fiske, 2007), the present study aims to explore if actual real life encounters and social interactions can have a similar effect. Social interaction is an integral part of everyday life. However, we may not regularly have the opportunity to interact with individuals in extreme out-groups—spontaneous disgust responses and dehumanized perception encourage 52 avoiding them all together. In the current study, we adopt a clinical intervention paradigm for use with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine brain activity of participants in response to the homeless before and after either actively engaging in conversations with homeless individuals at a soup kitchen. We find increased spontaneous mental state inferences after social interaction, and modulation of the social cognition network and amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitry by social experience. This suggests malleability of neural circuits implicated in the worst kind of prejudice by social experience.
RESPONSE TO IMAGES OF POVERTY Sarah Ketay, Bard College; Zohn Rosen, Columbia University; Peter Muennig, Columbia University; Michael Silverman, Mount Sinai School of Medicine– :
ABSTRACT:The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, the income gradient— the relative increase in mortality with lower income—accounts for a greater loss of health than any risk factor other than normal human aging. While there is a considerable amount of descriptive evidence for how SES might “get under the skin”, theories regarding how SES might affect health through psychological pathways include stress-induced pathophysiology, negative emotional style, and mental illness. One possibility is that diminished life satisfaction, such as that associated with living in an impoverished environment while repeatedly being exposed to more preferable conditions impacts psychosocial health. This study examined neural processing of emotionally valenced stimuli in participants across low and high socioeconomic status. Twenty-two unmedicated African American participants were scanned while observing emotionally-valenced stimuli from the International Affective Picture System as well as validated images of poverty. Emotionally valenced images as well as scrambled foils were serially-presented within a block design paradigm. Subjects were instructed to make a 2-alternative forced choice when presented with an emotionally valenced image or scrambled foil. Image acquisition was performed on a research-dedicated Siemens Allegra Magnetron 3 Tesla head dedicated MRI scanner (maximum gradient strength ~60mT/m, max gradient slew ~600T/m/s). Image processing and analysis (linear mixed effects model) were performed using the FSL software package. Changes of activation (increases or decreases) were analyzed according to regional a priori hypothesis, i.e. activation changes in limbic and frontal regions. Results indicate that people of low SES respond differently than individuals of higher SES and demonstrate differential activation patterns in response to similar images of poverty compared to negatively valenced stimuli. More specifically, participants defined as being of lower SES demonstrated attenuated activation in limbic regions including hippocampal and parahippocampal as well as frontal regions including the superior frontal gyrus. Results may indicate that low SES individuals display a diminished emotional response to the poverty imagery than general negative images. Future studies in this line may investigate if this response represents a coping mechanism or other adaptive response.
HOW SOCIAL IS PROSOCIALITY? COMPARING THE NEURAL CORRELATES OF PROSOCIAL AND SELF ORIENTED MOTIVATION. J. L. Livingston, A. C. Savine,T. S. Braver; Washington University in St. Louis – Recent findings have clearly demonstrated that self-oriented motivational incentives (e.g., earning money, praise, or consumed rewards for the self) can enhance executive function and goal pursuit. These enhancements have been found not only in terms of behavioral indicators, but also in modulations of neural activity in brain regions associated with reward and cognitive control, during attention, working memory, and task-switching paradigms. However, human motivation is often prosocial in nature (e.g., giving benefit to another); it is not known whether prosocial motivation might engage similar or distinct neural mechanisms from that engaged by selforiented motivation. In the current study, participants performed cued task-switching in two separate mixed block-event related fMRI scanning sessions that were analogous in structure and differed only in terms of motivational incentives (self-oriented vs. prosocial) available for optimal performance. In each session, participants met a confederate whom they believed would simultaneously participate in the experiment. In the selforiented condition, participants earned money for themselves, whereas in the pro-social condition, participants earned money for the confederate. Behaviorally, both self-oriented and prosocial motivational incentives enhanced cognitive control and reduced task-switch costs, but via distinct performance profiles. Consistent with prior work, brain activation increases were observed in cognitive control and reward regions in both incentive conditions, relative to baseline. Most notably, increased sustained activity in right dorsal lateral PFC was observed in the self-oriented condition relative to the prosocial condition, but for transient activity, the reverse was observed. This finding supports the idea that prosocial motivation and self-oriented motivation produce distinct effects on cognitive control strategy. We explore the extent to which this distinction is primarily social in nature or is instead related to the abstract nature of prosocial rewards.
FLAVORS OF EMPATHY AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR Jamil Zaki, Harvard University, Jason Mitchell, Harvard University –
Empathy is a multifaceted construct comprising distinct, but related information processing mechanisms. Two of these mechanisms have received a great deal of attention from human neuroimaging research: experience sharing--perceivers' tendency to vicariously adopt the sensorimotor, visceral, and affective states of social targets--and mentalizing-- perceivers' explicit cognitive inferences about targets' states. Strikingly, these two processes engage largely distinct sets of neural structures, suggesting that they may reflect dissociable routes for understanding and reacting to other people. Here, we examine how and when each of these processes predict a particular "downstream" social outcome: perceivers' decisions to act prosocially towards others. While being scanned using fMRI, perceivers (1) passively observed targets receiving money and (2) drew explicit inferences about targets' mental states. During passive viewing, perceivers engaged a common area of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) when receiving rewards themselves and observing targets receiving rewards, a common signature of experience sharing; this common neural response further predicted prosocial giving in a separate set of trials. By contrast, when actively drawing inferences about targets, perceivers engaged an area of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), an area commonly associated with mentalizing, which likewise predicted prosocial behavior. These data suggest that both experience sharing and mentalizing can predict prosocial behavior, but in a manner that depends on the context in which these processes are deployed.
THE ROLE OF OXYTOCIN IN SOCIAL NORM ENFORCEMENT Mirre Stallen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour; Amber Heijne, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour; Ale Smidts, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Carsten K.W. de Dreu, University of Amsterdam; and Alan G. Sanfey, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour -
ABSTRACT: The hormone oxytocin has long been considered important for prosocial behavior, with researchers exploring the relationship between oxytocin and factors such as trust, empathy, cooperation, and generosity. However, contrary to the popular belief of oxytocin being a ‘love hormone’, recent studies are beginning to suggest that oxytocin does not necessarily lead to indiscriminately prosocial behavior, but rather that it plays a role in a broader range of social behaviors. The aim of this study was to explore the possible effects of oxytocin on social norm enforcement. If oxytocin does indeed play a key role in social behavior, then does administration of oxytocin foster the choice to punish social norm violators? Or might oxytocin lead to a greater willingness to compensate the victim of a social norm violation? To investigate the role of oxytocin in social norm enforcement, we conducted a between- subject, double-blind, placebo-controlled, experiment in which participants played three versions of a monetary game while undergoing functional neuroimaging. These games were: a second-party punishment game, a third-party punishment game and a third-party compensation game. Hypothesizing that the effects of oxytocin do extend into a wider range of social behavior, we predicted that participants who received oxytocin would respond more intensely to social norm violations than participants in the placebo group, and thereby show increased punishment and/or compensation behavior. Our behavioral results demonstrated that oxytocin did increase sensitivity to social norm violations. Participants in the oxytocin group showed a greater willingness to punish those who violated a social norm. This effect was present in both punishment games, demonstrating that the effects of oxytocin on social norm enforcement extend into the domain of altruistic punishment. Interestingly, oxytocin did not enhance compensation behavior, thereby supporting the hypothesis that the positive effects of oxytocin on prosocial behavior are context-dependent. These results suggest that oxytocin is involved in a broader range of social behaviors than has been previously shown. Additionally, we collected neuroimaging data to assess the neural mechanisms by which oxytocin mediates social norm enforcement. Both behavioral and neuroimaging data will be presented.
DO INFLAMMATORY PATHWAYS LINK SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITIES TO THE INTEGRITY OF BRAIN NETWORKS? Peter J. Gianaros, University of Pittsburgh - Socioeconomic disadvantage confers risk for poor physical health across the lifespan.
Such risk may be partly attributable to inflammatory influences on the integrity of brain networks. This presentation will review findings from a study testing specifically whether socioeconomic disadvantage relates to the integrity of white matter tracts connecting regions in distributed brain networks via anthropometric, behavioral, and molecular factors associated with systemic inflammation. In this study, healthy adults (N=155, aged 30-50 years, 78 men) completed protocols assessing indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP), anthropometric and behavioral measures of adiposity and cigarette smoking, measures of circulating C-reactive protein (CRP), and assessments of white matter integrity by diffusion tensor imaging. Path analyses were used to quantify associations between multilevel SEP indicators and measures of white matter tract integrity, as well as indirect mediating paths. Results showed that those completing less schooling, earning lower incomes, and residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods exhibited graded decreases in white matter fractional anisotropy and increases in radial diffusivity, relative to their more advantaged counterparts. Moreover, analysis of indirect paths showed that these effects were accounted for by elevated adiposity and higher smoking rates among disadvantaged individuals. The latter findings implicated systemic inflammation as a plausible mediator of reduced tract integrity. This inference was supported by the observation that CRP partially mediated anthropometric and behavioral paths from SEP to tract integrity. Socioeconomic disadvantage may relate to emergent aspects of ill health via inflammatory factors that impact the integrity of distributed brain networks.
5-HTTLPR POLYMORPHISM INFLUENCES THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN A CULTURAL VALUE AND BRAIN ACTIVITY UNDERLYING SOCIAL COGNITION Yina Ma Bingfeng Li, Chenbo Wang, Zhenhao Shi, Yun Sun, Feng Sheng, Yifan Zhang, Wenxia Zhang, Yi Rao, Shihui Han; Peking University–
Thinking about the self and others consists of a key component of social cognition that guides social behaviors. Recent research has shown that sociocultural experiences influence the brain activity underlying social cognition (e.g., the processing of the selfand others). What remains unknown is whether and how biological factors interact with sociocultural experiences to affect the brain activity involved in social cognition. We investigated whether the serotonin transporter gene promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) affects the association between cultural values and brain activity associated with the processing of the self and a significant other. Using functional MRI, we scanned adults with short/short (s/s) or long/long (l/l) alleles of 5-HTTLPR during judgments of social, mental, and physical attributes of themselves and a close other (i.e. mother). We first found that a measure of a specific cultural value related to self-construals was correlated with the neural activity associated with judgments on the self and mother in brain regions such as the medial and lateral frontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, superior parietal cortex, insula, hippocampus, and cerebelum. Moreover, theassociation between the cultural value and brain activity related to mental attribute judgments was moderated by 5-HTTLPR, being stronger in l/l carriers than in s/s carriers. In sum, our functional neuroimaging results showed evidence for a gene–culture interaction in shaping the association between a cultural value (i.e., interdependence in self-construal) and brain activity related to the processing of the self and a close other. While there has been considerable evidence for cultural influences on human activity underlying multiple cognitive processes (Han and Northoff, 2008), the current study raised the question of whether and how cultural effects on brain activity are constrained by an individual’s genetic makeup.
NEGATIVE EMOTION IN COLLECTIVISTIC CONTEXTS: THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUALISMCOLLECTIVISM ON AMYGDALA FUNCTION AND SOCIAL COGNITION Lisa A. Hechtman, Northwestern University; Ahmad Hariri, Duke University; Tokiko Harada, Nagoya University; Yoko Mano, Tohoku University; Norihiro Sadato, National Institute for Physiological Sciences; Todd B. Parrish, Northwestern University; Tetsuya Iidaka, Nagoya University; Joan Y. Chiao, Northwestern University –
Mood and anxiety disorders have been linked to a number of biological mechanisms, including variations in the serotonin transporter gene, and decreased functional connectivity between amygdala and regulatory prefrontal cortex regions (Pezawas et al., 2005). Most of this work, however, focuses mainly on outcomes in Western, individualistic contexts, and treats heightened emotional sensitivity as maladaptive. One theory holds that living according to collectivistic norms requires particular sensitivity to negative information in one’s surroundings, due to increased emphasis on group membership and hierarchy (Chiao & Blizinsky, 2010). Here we examine the interrelationship between cultural values of individualism-collectivism, amygdala response to negative emotional stimuli, and social cognitive abilities. Bicultural Asian Americans completed an individualistic or collectivistic essay prime, and subsequently matched a series of emotional scenes and geometric shapes (control) during fMRI scanning. After scanning, participants played a prisoner’s dilemma game, and completed a theory of mind task (Reading the Mind in the Eyes; Baron- Cohen, 1997). ROI analysis within bilateral amygdala revealed that participants’ degree of primed collectivism positively predicts percent signal change in response to emotional scenes. Greater amygdala response predicted both increased cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma game, and better theory of mind ability; however, scores on social cognitive tasks were unrelated to primed levels of collectivism. These findings demonstrate that temporarily heightening awareness of collectivistic cultural values enhances emotional vigilance, whereas social-cognitive advantages more likely relate to more chronic levels of emotional vigilance. The results provide new hypotheses about the role of emotional sensitivity in collectivistic contexts.
CULTURAL VALUES OF INDIVIDUALISMCOLLECTIVISM MODULATE PREFRONTAL RESPONSE DURING RESPONSE INHIBITION Narun Pornpattananangkul, Northwestern University ; Ahmad Hariri, Duke University; Tokiko Harada4, Yoko Mano, Northwestern University; Hidetsugu Komeda, National Institute for Physiological Sciences; Todd Parrish, Northwestern University; Norihiro Sadato, National Institute for Physiological Sciences; Tetsuya Iidaka, Nagoya University; Joan Chiao, Northwestern University–
Those who value collectivism, or collectivists, focus their interest on interdependence and harmony of people in their group. On the other hand, those who value individualism, or individualists, emphasize more on independence and self-reliance of each individual. Being interdependent with their group, collectivists would be more likely than individualists to inhibit their personal goals in order to meet their group’s aims. However, very little is known about how this cultural tendency shapes neural mechanisms underlying this response inhibition. In the present study, cross-cultural functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted with three populations: Caucasian Americans in the US, Japanese in Japan, and Japanese in the US. After completing a survey on individualism-collectivism values, the participants then performed a Go-No Go task in the fMRI scanner. Our results show that collectivists exhibit greater lateral and medial prefrontal response during response inhibition compared to individualists, irrespective of nationality or geographic region. Taken together, this is a novel evidence showing that inhibitory-related neuronal activity varies as a function of cultural values.
RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE TIME-COURSE OF PAIN PERCEPTION PREDICT BIASES IN HELPING BEHAVIOR Stephanie Echols, University of Chicago; Jean Decety, University of Chicago – Individuals are more likely to feel concern for- and help in-group members in paithan out-group members (i.e., Hein, et al., 2010).
This investigation explored whether the time-course of pain perception differs for racial in- and out-group members, and whether this difference predicts in-group biases in helping behavior. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while Caucasian participants viewed images of Caucasian and African-American men expressing either pain or no emotion. Participants indicated via key-press what expression was displayed. Upon completion of this task, participants received $5 for correctly identifying the emotion in the images. Next, participants watched short video clips of men in pain, and were given the opportunity to help by donating a portion of the $5 they earned to help pay the cost of each individuals’ medical bill. Results showed that both early and late ERP components of pain processing were moderated by the race of the target. Participants exhibited more negative occipital N170s for in-group pain compared to in-group neutral (t (18) = -2.8, p < .05) and out-group pain expressions (t (18) = -2.3, p < .05). N170 deflections to outgroup pain did not differ from neutral expressions (t < 1). Similarly, frontal P200 deflections were greater to ingroup pain than neutral expressions (t (18) = 2.9, p < .05), and marginally greater than out-group pain (t (18) = 1.8, p < .09). No P200 differences were observed for out-group pain vs. neutral expressions (t < 1). Participants also exhibited enhanced P300 to in-group pain than neutral expressions (t (18) = 2.1, p < .05), whereas no expression differences emerged for out-group members (t < 1). Notably, ERP components differentially predicted helping behavior for in- and out-group members. Enhanced N170 deflections to in-group members predicted in-group helping ( r’s > 0.45, p < .05), whereas reduced N100 deflections to out-group neutral expressions predicted out-group helping (r = 0.6, p < .05). Results are discussed in terms of automatic and controlled components of pain perception and how they may be related to helping behavior. This investigation sheds light on the cognitive processes that underlie pain perception for in- and outgroup faces, and contributes to our understanding of group biases in empathic concern and helping behavior.
EMPATHIC CONCERN, POWER, AND P2 RESPONSE TO OTHERS’ EXPRESSIONS OF PAIN Michael E. W. Varnum, Peking University; Zhenhao Shi, Peking University; Shihui Han, Peking University –
In an exploratory study, we investigated the relationship between a self-report measure of trait empathy (Empathic Concern), power, and brain responses to others’ suffering. Previous research suggests that power is negatively related to sensitivity to others’ distress. People with low SES and those primed to feel low in SES show greater accuracy in determining others’ emotional states (Kraus, et al., 2010) and engage in more prosocial behavior (Piff, et al., 2010). In the present study we used an ERP paradigm to investigate whether power affected people’s responses to images of others in pain, focusing on an early attentional component (P2) that has previously been shown to increase in response to faces expressing pain (Feng, et al., under review). Based on previous research, we suspected that inducing subjects to feel a low sense of power would heighten P2 in response to painful (as opposed to neutral) faces. We employed a 3(Power: High, Low, Neutral) x 2(Facial Expression: Painful vs. Neutral) within-subjects design. Although we did not observe the predicted 3 x 2 interaction, exploratory analyses revealed that Low Power did increase P2 response to painful vs. neutral faces among participants who were low in Empathic Concern (EC). Further, we observed significant 2 (EC) x 3 (Power) x 2 (Face) interactions at four frontal electrodes. Including only the High Power and Low Power conditions, 3-way interactions were observed at 13 frontal electrodes. This study suggests that low power may indeed increase sensitivity to others’ pain (as indexed by P2), but that this effect seems to be confined to people who are low in trait empathy. Our results also suggest that among those high in EC, a ceiling effect may be present. We are seeking to replicate this finding, pre-selecting participants based on extremity of EC scores. We also hope to explore whether individual differences in trait-level empathy might also be related to more general differences in attention to and encoding of emotional and social information about others.
SOCIAL RANK IN ECONOMIC DECISION-MAKING Sagan A. Schultz, New York University; Lasana Harris, Duke University; Mauricio R. Delgado, Rutgers University; Elizabeth A. Phelps, New York University–
Using the tools of economics we examined how social ranking, or one’s position held in society, modulates human choice. Previous research has demonstrated that losing the social competition of an auction is linked to a striatal ‘loss’ response that is correlated with how much participants ‘overbid’ in relation to the Nash equilibrium (Delgado et al., 2005). These results suggest the fear of losing the social competition inherent in an auction is linked to overbidding behavior. It is therefore plausible that another type of loss, namely loss in the form of decreased social rank, might also result in increased overbidding. In two separate experiments, participants competed in a dynamic auction game bidding against a single partner for monetary goods. The participants were then given feedback about their performance relative to their partner. Our findings show that participants ranked as “worse” than their opponent made significant changes to their original bidding strategy in the form of increased overbidding, while those ranked “better” did not. Interestingly, this act of overbidding produced a significant loss in potential monetary earnings. These results indicate one of the means by which social rank may play a modulatory role in choice behavior