Neuroscience of social behavior
and emotional disorders (NSBED)
HC1 – introduction and Methods
What is social neuroscience?
- Mix of sociology, social psychology and neuroscience
Sociology
- Study of social behavior or society
- We tend to be favorable to our own group and not to our out-group, which means everyone
is prejudiced
Social Psychology
- Study of (automatic) motivations of emotions of the brain regarding social activity
Neuroscience:
- Attempts to understand behavior by studying underlying brain regulators on
molecular/cellular level
Is there a ‘Social Brain’? (IMPORTANT QUESTION)
- Social brain is non-modular
Social and non-social cognition rely on each other and evolve hand-in-hand
In general: bigger brains lead to changes in both social and non-social intelligence
Or maybe like this (social intelligence hypothesis)
Pressure to outwit peers may lead to increased intelligence in (non)-social domains
Triune brain model (Maclean)
- According to this model the human brain is
an accumulation of brain regions that can be
roughly divided in three phylogenetic stages:
1. The reptilian brain (sub-cortex)
Action-Reaction / fight-flight
2. The mammalian brain (limbic system)
Emotionality: behavioral flexibility
3. The primate brain (neo-cortex)
Rationality: behavior control
- Each ‘’newer’’ layer supports more complex
functions and exerts some sort of control
over the ‘’older’’ layers. (primate is newest,
reptilian is oldest)
Als tijger voor je staat neemt het
reptielenbrein het over, maar als tijger
1000 meter ver weg staat dan handel je
naar je primate brain.
- This crosstalk however also means that a
large part of our behavior is still driven by
, similar brain mechanisms as our phylogenetic predecessors (bijv mensen met anxiety
disorder hebben een reptilian brain reactie op een trigger waar mensen normaal met een
primaat brein reactie op reageren
- Social brain is mostly non-modular
Social and non-social cognition rely on each other and evolve hand-in-hand
In general: bigger brains lead to changes in both social and non-social intelligence
Or maybe like this (social intelligence hypothesis)
Pressure to outwit peers may lead to increased intelligence in (non)-social domains
- Modularity per phylogenetic state:
1. Primate brain: non modular
No precise brain area’s for social behavior, except for mirror neurons (more about this
later) which might play a role in social learning through observation
2. Mammalian brain (module-like)
Amygdala/insula – fear/disgust
3. Reptilian brain (quite modular)
Small nuclei with distinct (non)social roles
Mirror Neurons
- Neurons that respond to both self-behavior and other-behavior
- Thought to serve observational learning
- There may be comparable systems for emotion and sensation (e.g. pain) as well as action
- Not tightly localized to one region (so non modular!)
Conclusion P1:
- Some parts of social brain might be modular, module-like or nonmodular depending on
function
- In general, a network approach would be recommended instead of ascribing specific social
functions to brain regions
P2 Methods of Social Neuroscience
- 2 sides:
1. Psychological methods
2. Physiological methods
Psychological methods of SNS
- Subjective measures
Emotional experience
Personality questionnaires
- Observational measures
Frequency of behaviors
- Performance measures
Reaction time
Accuracy
Subjective measures
- Emotional experience
Interview/questionnaire to determine experience of individual
POMS (profile of mood state)
- Personality Questionnaires
, STAI/STAS (state-trait anxiety/anger)
LSAS (Liebowitz social anxiety scare)
EQ-SQ (empathy/systemizing)
BIS/BAS (beh. Inhibiton/activation)
& more
ALL HIGHLY VALIDATED MEASURES!
- How to use in SNS
Useful as control variable
Useful as correlation with other measure
Compare different studies
Observational Measures
- What will the participant do?
Scoring and counting behaviors
Animal studies
Infant studies
Camera (blinding, inter-rater reliability)
Also: Eye-tracking
Performance measures
- Speed and accuracy
Speed-accuracy trade-off
Restricted, but ‘real’ behavior
Stable because many measurements
- IQ test
- Emotion recognition test
- Selective attention
Implicit association task
(Gaze) cueing tasks
Stroop to fear and anger
Classical stroop: interference of word and color of word
Emotional Stroop: interference of emotion associated
with the word
Facial Fear Stroop: interference of expression
( participants with high trait angriness are slower at
naming the color after seeing angry face)
Measuring Psychophysiology
- Controlled by the brain through the spinal cord
- (Para)sympathetic nervous system
Arousal
(Electro)physiological methods
- Goal
Measure bodily reactions that underlie/precede (social) behavior
- Skin conductance (SCR)
Sweat gland activity
- Heart rate, respiration
Preparation for fight/flight
, - Electromyography (EMG)
Muscle activity
Skin conductance resp. (SCR)
- Sweat glands related to sympathetic arousal
- Peak between 1-5s
- Can occur in absence of conscious perception
Heart rate
- Deceleration
Preparing for danger
- Acceleration
Active escape or attack
- Heart rate variability (HRV) (= of je hart ritmisch is of dat er tijdverschil zit tussen hartslagen)
More variability = rest = parasympathetic
Less = concentration, enhanced attention = Sympathetic
Electromyography (EMG)
- Measures potential between pairs of close electrodes
- Muscle activity
- Mimicking facial expressions (affective empathy)
Startle potentiation (also emg)
- Eye blink startle potentiation
- Measures orbicularis oculi (eye blinking) in non-threaten and threaten situations when a
startle signal is presented
P3 Brain Imaging
- Electrophysiology
Single cell-recordings
Electroencephalography (EEG)
- Structural imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTI)
- Functional imaging
Positron emission tomography (PET)
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
- Lesion methods
Neuropsychology
Animal research
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Structure of the neuron
- All neuron same basic structure
Dendrite
Axon: transports action potentials
Cell body
and emotional disorders (NSBED)
HC1 – introduction and Methods
What is social neuroscience?
- Mix of sociology, social psychology and neuroscience
Sociology
- Study of social behavior or society
- We tend to be favorable to our own group and not to our out-group, which means everyone
is prejudiced
Social Psychology
- Study of (automatic) motivations of emotions of the brain regarding social activity
Neuroscience:
- Attempts to understand behavior by studying underlying brain regulators on
molecular/cellular level
Is there a ‘Social Brain’? (IMPORTANT QUESTION)
- Social brain is non-modular
Social and non-social cognition rely on each other and evolve hand-in-hand
In general: bigger brains lead to changes in both social and non-social intelligence
Or maybe like this (social intelligence hypothesis)
Pressure to outwit peers may lead to increased intelligence in (non)-social domains
Triune brain model (Maclean)
- According to this model the human brain is
an accumulation of brain regions that can be
roughly divided in three phylogenetic stages:
1. The reptilian brain (sub-cortex)
Action-Reaction / fight-flight
2. The mammalian brain (limbic system)
Emotionality: behavioral flexibility
3. The primate brain (neo-cortex)
Rationality: behavior control
- Each ‘’newer’’ layer supports more complex
functions and exerts some sort of control
over the ‘’older’’ layers. (primate is newest,
reptilian is oldest)
Als tijger voor je staat neemt het
reptielenbrein het over, maar als tijger
1000 meter ver weg staat dan handel je
naar je primate brain.
- This crosstalk however also means that a
large part of our behavior is still driven by
, similar brain mechanisms as our phylogenetic predecessors (bijv mensen met anxiety
disorder hebben een reptilian brain reactie op een trigger waar mensen normaal met een
primaat brein reactie op reageren
- Social brain is mostly non-modular
Social and non-social cognition rely on each other and evolve hand-in-hand
In general: bigger brains lead to changes in both social and non-social intelligence
Or maybe like this (social intelligence hypothesis)
Pressure to outwit peers may lead to increased intelligence in (non)-social domains
- Modularity per phylogenetic state:
1. Primate brain: non modular
No precise brain area’s for social behavior, except for mirror neurons (more about this
later) which might play a role in social learning through observation
2. Mammalian brain (module-like)
Amygdala/insula – fear/disgust
3. Reptilian brain (quite modular)
Small nuclei with distinct (non)social roles
Mirror Neurons
- Neurons that respond to both self-behavior and other-behavior
- Thought to serve observational learning
- There may be comparable systems for emotion and sensation (e.g. pain) as well as action
- Not tightly localized to one region (so non modular!)
Conclusion P1:
- Some parts of social brain might be modular, module-like or nonmodular depending on
function
- In general, a network approach would be recommended instead of ascribing specific social
functions to brain regions
P2 Methods of Social Neuroscience
- 2 sides:
1. Psychological methods
2. Physiological methods
Psychological methods of SNS
- Subjective measures
Emotional experience
Personality questionnaires
- Observational measures
Frequency of behaviors
- Performance measures
Reaction time
Accuracy
Subjective measures
- Emotional experience
Interview/questionnaire to determine experience of individual
POMS (profile of mood state)
- Personality Questionnaires
, STAI/STAS (state-trait anxiety/anger)
LSAS (Liebowitz social anxiety scare)
EQ-SQ (empathy/systemizing)
BIS/BAS (beh. Inhibiton/activation)
& more
ALL HIGHLY VALIDATED MEASURES!
- How to use in SNS
Useful as control variable
Useful as correlation with other measure
Compare different studies
Observational Measures
- What will the participant do?
Scoring and counting behaviors
Animal studies
Infant studies
Camera (blinding, inter-rater reliability)
Also: Eye-tracking
Performance measures
- Speed and accuracy
Speed-accuracy trade-off
Restricted, but ‘real’ behavior
Stable because many measurements
- IQ test
- Emotion recognition test
- Selective attention
Implicit association task
(Gaze) cueing tasks
Stroop to fear and anger
Classical stroop: interference of word and color of word
Emotional Stroop: interference of emotion associated
with the word
Facial Fear Stroop: interference of expression
( participants with high trait angriness are slower at
naming the color after seeing angry face)
Measuring Psychophysiology
- Controlled by the brain through the spinal cord
- (Para)sympathetic nervous system
Arousal
(Electro)physiological methods
- Goal
Measure bodily reactions that underlie/precede (social) behavior
- Skin conductance (SCR)
Sweat gland activity
- Heart rate, respiration
Preparation for fight/flight
, - Electromyography (EMG)
Muscle activity
Skin conductance resp. (SCR)
- Sweat glands related to sympathetic arousal
- Peak between 1-5s
- Can occur in absence of conscious perception
Heart rate
- Deceleration
Preparing for danger
- Acceleration
Active escape or attack
- Heart rate variability (HRV) (= of je hart ritmisch is of dat er tijdverschil zit tussen hartslagen)
More variability = rest = parasympathetic
Less = concentration, enhanced attention = Sympathetic
Electromyography (EMG)
- Measures potential between pairs of close electrodes
- Muscle activity
- Mimicking facial expressions (affective empathy)
Startle potentiation (also emg)
- Eye blink startle potentiation
- Measures orbicularis oculi (eye blinking) in non-threaten and threaten situations when a
startle signal is presented
P3 Brain Imaging
- Electrophysiology
Single cell-recordings
Electroencephalography (EEG)
- Structural imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTI)
- Functional imaging
Positron emission tomography (PET)
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
- Lesion methods
Neuropsychology
Animal research
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Structure of the neuron
- All neuron same basic structure
Dendrite
Axon: transports action potentials
Cell body
