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Published: 10 March 2023

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1

CASSIOLI, FEDERICO. "Neuroscienze cognitive applicate: sviluppo di paradigmi elettrofisiologici innovativi per lo studio di moral reasoning e interazioni sociali." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2023. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/136503.

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Il seguente progetto di ricerca si innesta sulla riflessione che la complessità è un fenomeno endemico, presente in molti domini. Fornita una definizione di complessità (che, per ironia, non è compito affatto semplice), possiamo attribuire ai fenomeni sociali e morali tale caratteristica. In questo lavoro abbiamo preso in considerazione come oggetto di ricerca l’impatto che la tecnologia ha da un punto di vista cognitivo e affettivo nei contesti sociali e d’interazione, e nel ragionamento morale. Abbiamo evidenziato quelle che pensiamo siano le principali criticità della letteratura scientifica contemporanea, che possono essere riassunte nei seguenti punti: l’utilizzo esclusivo di dati self-report e la considerazione di fenomeni sociali a partire da casi statistici individuali, con l’assunto, anche se più o meno celato, che uno più uno sia uguale a due. Per questo, lo scopo principale del lavoro è la costruzione e l’implementazione di protocolli che superino questi limiti. Per farlo, abbiamo individuati tre assi attorno ai quali abbiamo sviluppato i tre studi che compongono il corpus scientifico del lavoro: l’elettrofisiologia, l’analisi multi-livello e la tecnica dell’hyperscanning, che permette l’acquisizione di dati fisiologici, e non, su più soggetti contemporaneamente. I tre studi si possono collocare su un continuum che va dalla ricerca di base-laboratoriale al setting più applicato. Nel primo studio, una ricerca di base, abbiamo implementato una versione modificata del noto trolley problem di Foot, andando a randomizzare i fattori che riguardano la natura dell’agente coinvolto (umano o automatico) e il comportamento dell’agente (intervenire o non intervenire nello “stallo” morale). Abbiamo raccolto dati EEG, autonomici, comportamentali e psicometrici. Abbiamo trovato evidenze che indicano che i nostri soggetti sperimentali abbiano applicato schemi morali e meta- rappresentazioni differenti in base alla natura dell’agente e tendano a non considerare l’agente artificiale come un’entità morale. Abbiamo rilevato anche pattern elettrofisiologici dissimili, che coinvolgono il processamento attentivo, emotivo e dell’agentività. Una maggiore complessità di elaborazione si è manifestata nel ragionamento morale che riguardava agenti non-umani. Questa “asimmetria” nel ragionamento morale, a parità di azioni, ci ha portato a concludere che la risposta automatica dell’essere umano potrebbe comportare delle problematiche in futuro. Il lavoro si conclude con una riflessione riguardante la tecnologia automatica, evidenziandone alcuni limiti in termini etico-morali. Nel secondo e terzo studio, che rappresentano la componente più applicata del lavoro, abbiamo cercato di evidenziare possibili differenze tra la modalità face-to-face e quella da remoto, focalizzandoci sul colloquio di selezione e sull’apprendimento in azienda. Abbiamo utilizzato misure elettrofisiologiche, sia centrali che periferiche, e l’analisi qualitativa del contenuto, rilevando dati in contemporanea durante l’interazione sociale. In generale, i dati raccolti indicano un maggior engagement emotivo nei soggetti di durante l’interazione face-to-face, insieme a livelli di arousal più elevati. La condizione remote invece non sembra essere associata a livelli di cognitive load maggiore, come studi precedenti indicavano. Queste evidenze ci hanno portato a concludere che una visione estremamente dicotomica nella valutazione delle due modalità prese in considerazione è da sconsigliare, in favore di un approccio più situazionale. Il lavoro si conclude andando a indicare i limiti degli studi presentati e suggerendo nuovi percorsi di ricerca per il futuro.
This research project lays its foundations on the observed ubiquity of complexity in many phenomena. Given the definition of complexity, human social and moral processes are to be considered part of the set of complex entities. We chose to investigate the cognitive and affective impact of technology and automation in social and morally-charged contexts. Highlighted possible inherent methodological issues in the state-of-art research, such as self-reported- only approaches and one-brain analyses, we propose to address the research object via electrophysiology (electroencephalography and autonomic activity analysis), multi-level analysis (both quantitative and qualitative: electrophysiology, psychometrics, behavioural, and content analysis), and the technique of hyperscanning, the simultaneous data collection in more than one subject and the computing of interbrain connectivity indices, which allows transcending the “one plus one equals two” line of reasoning. From this epistemological and methodological evidence, we proposed and implemented three studies that can be located across a continuum that goes from basic laboratory to fully applied research. In the first study, a basic research design, we implemented a modified version of the renowned Trolley problem, randomizing the agent nature (either human or automated) and its behaviour (intervening or not intervening in the ongoing moral impasse) and collecting the participants’ electroencephalography, autonomic, behavioural, and psychometrics data. We found evidence that suggests the existence of different moral schemata and meta-representations, together with peculiar allocations of brain resources for both the considered factors. The main differences involved attentional, emotional, social, and agency processes, and led to the following interpretation: a morality asymmetry toward humans and artificial agents in morally-charged situations might exist. Thus, we concluded that leaving up to people’s default response could be problematic from a moral and ethical perspective. We furnish a partial solution on the matter and bring to the attention possible inherent threats revolving around automation. In the second and third studies, we designed and implemented applied protocols that aimed at highlighting divergences in face-to-face and remote social interactions. In the second study, we chose to focus on job interviews, typical inter-individual exchanges in the organizational domain, and gather electroencephalography and autonomic data on all the involved social agents. In the third study, we zoomed on learning and training settings and gathered electroencephalography data with the aid of wearable and portable devices. The face-to-face condition seems associated with higher emotional engagement between participants and higher arousal. Remote settings instead seemed not to be particularly linked to increased cognitive difficulty. Thus, when it comes to evaluating the two considered modalities, we suggest the rejection of all-or-nothing or black-or-white interpretations in favour of situation-based examination. In the last part of the work, we listed and discussed the project’s weaknesses, in terms of validity and propose new research paths.
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2

ISERNIA, SARA. "TEORIA DELLA MENTE E SCLEROSI MULTIPLA: DA UNO SCREENING DI TEORIA DELLA MENTE A UN MODELLO DEI MECCANISMI CEREBRALI." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/70989.

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Il presente lavoro di tesi si propone di indagare il deficit di Teoria della Mente (ToM) nella sclerosi multipla (SM). Tale tematica è stata affrontata su due fronti: (1) indagando i meccanismi sottostanti a tale deficit attraverso due studi sperimentali, il primo comportamentale e il secondo di neuroimaging (2) e creando uno strumento di assessment ecologico per la popolazione target. I risultati dimostrano un deficit di mentalizzazione nella SM perlopiù legato alla componente cognitiva della ToM, con una maggiore compromissione nel fenotipo progressivo rispetto al remittente, e una relazione tra ToM e livello cognitivo. Tali evidenze sono confermate dai dati neuro-strutturali, i quali evidenziano un meccanismo di disconnessione, intra- e inter-circuiti neurali della ToM, compromettendo sia i circuiti specifici di ToM sia la comunicazione tra i network di ToM e i loop esecutivi. In ultimo, viene presentato il modello di lavoro adottato per la messa a punto di un nuovo strumento multimediale di screening di ToM, includendo la prima versione della sceneggiatura e degli item del test. Tale implementazione si è basata sul modello di ToM multi-componenziale e sull'intento di presentare diversi contesti di relazione nella vita quotidiana: famiglia, amicizia e relazione romantica.
This thesis aims to investigate the theory of mind (ToM) deficit in multiple sclerosis (MS). This phenomenon has been addressed through a twofold aim: (1) exploring the deficit underlying mechanisms with two experimental studies, a behavioral and a neuroimaging study; (2) creating an ecological assessment tool for this target population. The experimental studies results demonstrate a ToM deficit in MS mostly linked to the cognitive component of ToM, with major damage in the progressive than remitting phenotype, and a relationship between ToM and cognitive level in MS. This evidence is confirmed by neuro-structured data, that highlight a disconnection mechanism, intra- and inter- ToM neural circuits, involving both ToM specific circuits and the communication between ToM network and executive loops. Then, the workflow adopted for the implementation of the new multimedia tool for the ToM screening is presented, including the draft of the screenplay and the test items. The tool implementation grounds on a multi-componential model of ToM and the purpose to present different contexts of relationships in the everyday life: family, friendship and romantic relationship.
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3

Goldner, Gerhard Tobias. "Social recognition and telencephalic binding sites of oxytocin in a solitary and a social Otomyine species." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/55857.

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This study examined the sociality of two phylogenetically closely related otomyine, murid rodent species that display differences in social behaviour in the wild. A fundamental characteristic of sociality in mammals is the ability to recognise conspecifics and discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar animals. In rodents, olfactory cues serve as the main source of such recognition and has been linked to dopaminergic reward centres in the brain, structures and regions responsible for short and long term memory, as well as neural processes involved in reducing stress. The neuropeptide, oxytocin, is produced by hypothalamic cells and can act as a neurotransmitter. Recent work has linked these neural, telencephalic structures (the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and hippocampus) to social recognition and oxytocin. Oxytocinergic receptor density is greater in such regions in social, monogamous or gregarious rodents, whereas it is much less in solitary species. Experimental studies have found mechanistic links between oxytocin function and social recognition and discrimination in laboratory mice and rats. However, no known study has tested social recognition and discrimination in wild-caught, non-typical model species in conjunction with a description of their oxytocinergic neuroanatomy. This justified my study to investigate whether the social-living, gregarious, colonial ice rat, Otomys sloggetti robertsi, show similar oxytocin receptor binding to other social species, and whether it has the ability to recognise conspecifics and discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar animals. Similarly, I investigated and compared these traits in a solitary, phylogenetically closely related species, the vlei rat, Otomys auratus. Neither sexes of both species showed social recognition abilities based on olfactory cues. This was surprising, as social-living ice rats were predicted to display recognition abilities. Interestingly, female vlei rats showed the ability to discriminate between a familiar and novel conspecific. The results suggest that vlei and ice rats exhibit social recognition flexibility, while social discrimination demonstrated by solitary female vlei rats may provide adaptive advantages in the wild. The impaired social recognition and discrimination observed by ice rats may be explained by their temporal flexibility in social behaviour in the wild. Colonial living and social tolerance by ice rats may indicate phenotypical plasticity, or ‘social flexibility’, to harsh ecological constraints. In contrast, the neuroanatomy of vlei and ice rats reflects their wild behaviour. Neural oxytocin receptor binding sites, identified using ligand-binding receptor autoradiography, were more intense in the nucleus accumbens, islands of Calleja, claustrum, indusium griseum, prefrontal cortex, insular cortices, extended amygdala, bed nuclei of the stria terminalis and hypothalamic nuclei of the ice rats, compared to that of the vlei rats. The overall patterns of neural oxytocin receptor (OTR) binding in ice rats are similar to that found in social voles, while that of vlei rats and solitary voles are comparable, particularly the binding intensities observed in the lateral septum. The brains of the vlei rat had OTR binding in the medial habenula and dentate gyrus, which was absent in the ice rat brains. Similarly, OTR binding was only detected in the subfields of hippocampus, intermediodorsal and rhomboid thalamic nuclei in the brain of the ice rats. As predicted from their social behaviour in the wild, the telencephalic OTR binding of the two species reflected their socially disparate behaviour, similar to other studies. Based on the lack of extreme differences in behavioural data, and various similarities in oxytocinergic receptor binding sites in the telencephalic structures, I suggest that a continuum of oxytocinergic effects on social, group-living behaviour of these related species may exist in this otomyine group. The differences in neuropeptidergic circuitry in these two species contributes further to our understanding of evolutionary neuroendocrinology of sociality.
Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
National Research Foundation (NRF)
SARChI Behavioural Ecology
Zoology and Entomology
MSc
Unrestricted
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4

Contreras, Juan Manuel. "A Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Groups." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10882.

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We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how the human brain processes information about social groups in three domains. Study 1: Semantic knowledge. Participants were scanned while they answered questions about their knowledge of both social categories and non-social categories like object groups and species of nonhuman animals. Brain regions previously identified in processing semantic information are more robustly engaged by nonsocial semantics than stereotypes. In contrast, stereotypes elicit greater activity in brain regions implicated in social cognition. These results suggest that stereotypes should be considered distinct from other forms of semantic knowledge. Study 2: Theory of mind. Participants were scanned while they answered questions about the mental states and physical attributes of individual people and groups. Regions previously associated with mentalizing about individuals were also robustly responsive to judgments of groups. However, multivariate searchlight analysis revealed that several of these regions showed distinct multivoxel patterns of response to groups and individual people. These findings suggest that perceivers mentalize about groups in a manner qualitatively similar to mentalizing about individual people, but that the brain nevertheless maintains important distinctions between the representations of such entities. Study 3: Social categorization. Participants were scanned while they categorized the sex and race of unfamiliar Black men, Black women, White men, and White women. Multivariate pattern analysis revealed that multivoxel patterns in FFA--but not other face-selective brain regions, other category-selective brain regions, or early visual cortex--differentiated faces by sex and race. Specifically, patterns of voxel-based responses were more similar between individuals of the same sex than between men and women, and between individuals of the same race than between Black and White individuals. These results suggest that FFA represents the sex and race of faces. Together, these three studies contribute to a growing cognitive neuroscience of social groups.
Psychology
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Tamir, Diana Ilse. "A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Egocentric Influence." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11523.

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This dissertation explores the cognitive mechanisms and motivations that guide two aspects of human social behavior: thinking about other's experiences and communicating with others. In both cases, studies investigated the possibility that self-referential thought guides our social behavior. First, Paper 1 and 2 investigated how people come to understand other's thoughts and experiences by suggesting that people may use their own self-knowledge as a starting point for making inferences about others. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral measures, these studies tested whether individuals make social inferences using the cognitive process of egocentric anchoring-and-adjustment, whereby individuals first anchor on self-knowledge, and then serially adjust away from these anchors in order to correct for differences between the self and other. Results provided evidence consistent with egocentric anchoring-and-adjustment: increases in self-other discrepancy corresponded to both increases in activity in the MPFC (Paper 1), a neural region associated with both self-referential thought and social cognition, as well as increases in response time (Paper 2), though only for targets where self-knowledge is particularly relevant. Paper 3 then investigated a prominent social behavior, self-disclosure--the act of sharing information about the self with others--which comprises 30- 40% of human conversation. Using both functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral economics methodology, five studies tested whether people communicate their thoughts and feelings to others because they are intrinsically motivated to do so. Results supported the hypothesis that individuals experience sharing their thoughts with others as subjectively rewarding: self-disclosure was associated with increased activation in brain regions that form the mesolimbic dopamine reward system; and individuals were willing to forgo money to self- disclose. Moreover, both the self and the disclosure aspects of self-disclosure independently contributed to its value. Together these Papers contribute to our understanding of the ways in which our internal world grounds elements of our external social acts.
Psychology
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Pieslinger, Johan. "Social punishment : Evidence from experimental scenarios." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för biovetenskap, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-15464.

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Punishment is the act of penalizing an individual as a response to a transgression. This thesis will deal with punishment in experimental game scenarios and in experimental criminal punishment scenarios, along with their different adaptations. The aim will be to provide an overview of both psychological and neurological underpinnings of punishment by reviewing existing literature. While punishment ought to deter transgressions and promote cooperative behavior, internal neural reward-related systems seem to be a driving factor of the desire to punish wrongdoings. Decisions on whether a transgressor is guilty and deserves punishment is mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex with an emphasis on the ventromedial parts. External influences affect the behavioral output and its underlying neural signatures of punishment. Social context such as peer pressure and in-group bias emphasize the importance of theory of mind related areas when conducting punishment.
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7

Bailey, Phoebe Elizabeth Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "The social cognitive neuroscience of empathy in older adulthood." Awarded By:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2009. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/44506.

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Empathy is an essential prerequisite for the development and maintenance of close interpersonal relationships. Given that older adults are particularly vulnerable to the negative consequences of loneliness and social isolation, it is surprising that few studies have assessed empathy in this group. The current programme of research addressed this gap in the literature by testing competing predictions derived from Socioemotional Selectivity Theory and the Ageing-Brain Model for age-related sparing and impairment of empathy, respectively. Study 1 compared young (N = 80) and older (N = 49) adults?? self-reported levels of cognitive and affective empathy, and engagement in social activities. It was found that although affective empathy is spared, cognitive empathy is subject to age-related decline, and this decline mediates reductions in social participation. These data therefore affirmed the importance of further investigation into the nature, causes and potential consequences of age-related differences in empathy. Since disinhibition is one mechanism contributing to difficulty taking the perspective of another, and is known to increase with age, in Study 2, behavioural measures sensitive to inhibitory failure and to cognitive empathy were administered to young (N = 36) and older (N = 33) adults. One of the measures of cognitive empathy directly manipulated inhibitory demands, involving either high or low levels of self-perspective inhibition. The results indicated that older adults were selectively impaired on the high-inhibition condition, with cognitive disinhibition mediating this association. Study 2 therefore provided important evidence relating to one potential mechanism that contributes to age-related difficulties in perspective-taking. Studies 3 and 4 provided the first behavioural assessments of age-related differences in affective empathy by using electromyography to index facial expression mimicry. Study 3 found that young (N = 35) and older (N = 35) adults?? demonstrate comparable mimicry of anger, but older adults?? initial (i.e., implicit) reactions were associated with reduced anger recognition. Thus, to test the possibility that despite explicit recognition difficulties, implicit processing of facial expressions may be preserved in older adulthood, Study 4 compared young (N = 46) and older (N = 40) adults?? mimicry responses to subliminally presented angry and happy facial expressions. As predicted, the two groups demonstrated commensurate subconscious mimicry of these expressions. Taken together, these studies indicate that separate components of empathy are differentially affected by healthy adult ageing. Implications for competing perspectives of socioemotional functioning in older adulthood are discussed.
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Pieslinger, Johan. "Social threat processing and emotional arousal : Associations between the Late Positive Potential and aggressive tendencies." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för biovetenskap, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-17810.

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Aggressive behaviour can be defined as actions that are believed and intended to cause harm to another individual that does not desire to be the target of such actions. Different situations can warrant aggressive behaviour, such as when an individual is posed with a threat. Aggressive behaviour is one of the ways individuals can deal with threats arising from their environments, and furthermore, aggressive behaviour can also be used to deal with social threats that arise from the interaction between two members of the same species. Aggressive behaviour is correlated with higher emotional arousal, and individuals that illustrate aggressive tendencies should be more sensitive to arousal when confronted with a social threat. This thesis acts upon this notion by hypothesizing that individuals who score higher on a tendency for aggression measurements should exhibit higher emotional arousal when exposed to a cue of social threat. Cues of social threats are thought to be induced by exposing the participant to either an angry face or a face with a high facial width to height ratio. The emotional response is measured with electroencephalography, more specifically looking at the late positive potential. No support for the hypothesis was found between high and low aggression groups. The facial width to height ratios proposed nature of being a cue of social threat becomes contested as the results were conflicting regarding the robustness of the facial width to height ratio’s effect. Even if there were no statistically significant differences found between the two groups, it might not be subject for dismissal as the sample population could be considered a low aggression population overall.
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VANUTELLI, MARIA ELIDE. "SHARING EMOTIONS IN SOCIAL LIFE: NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM INTERACTIVE NEUROSCIENCE." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/17223.

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Il tema delle emozioni è sempre stato considerato marginale rispetto allo studio della cognizione umana, nonostante la ricerca sull’argomento sia sempre stata circondata da grande interesse. Tuttavia negli ultimi 30 anni si è affacciata una nuova prospettiva che descrive le emozioni come cause, mediatori o conseguenze di altri processi psicologici, ma soprattutto delle relazioni interpersonali. Il primo studio della presente Tesi di Dottorato è stato concepito come un paradigma di induzione emotiva allo scopo di individuare alcuni marcatori biologici legati all’esperienza soggettiva, all’interno di una prospettiva multimetodologica. In seguito, nel tentativo di considerare anche una dimensione sociale della condivisione emotiva, è stato condotto il secondo studio proponendo stimoli che rappresentassero interazioni reali tra due soggetti interagenti. Questi potevano variare anche in base alla vicinanza filogenetica, ipotizzando che, grazie a meccanismi di mirroring e simulazione, la percezione delle emozioni altrui possa essere più immediata quando l’altro soggetto viene percepito come simile. Infine, l’idea che alcune variabili legate all’interlocutore sociale siano in grado di modulare la capacità di entrare in risonanza con le emozioni altrui è stata approfondita con il terzo studio: un compito sociale reale con pradigma hyperscanning. L’obiettivo era quello di esplorare la presenza di pattern di sincronizzazione durante il compito eseguito in modo cooperativo. In conclusione, i tre studi sono stati condotti seguendo un livello di complessità crescente, da una prospettiva su singolo soggetto ad un approccio diadico, tramite l’utilizzo di stimoli emotivi standard, interattivi e dinamici applicati a contesti semplici, complessi e iper-complessi.
Despite the great interest addressed to the topic of emotions, it has always been treated as a marginal issue if compared to cognition. Nonetheless in the last 30 years a new perspective suggested that emotions are effectively the causes, mediators, or consequences of other psychological processes, and, above all, of interpersonal relations. The first study of the present Doctoral Thesis was conceived as an emotion induction paradigm in the attempt to identify some biological markers of the subjective emotional experience within a multi-method perspective. Then, in the attempt to move a step forward in describing the social dimension of the emotional sharing, the second study was designed by creating emotional stimuli that represented real interactions between two inter-agents. They could also vary for phylogenetic closeness following the hypothesis that, thanks to mirroring and simulation processes, emotion perception is easier when the other agent is perceived as similar. Finally, the idea that some variables related to the social encounter are able to modulate the capacity to resonate with others’ emotions was better explored in the last study: a real social cooperative task in the form of a hyperscanning paradigm. The aim was to explore the presence of synchronized patterns during the joint action. To conclude, the three studies have been designed according to an increased level of complexity, from a single-subject perspective towards a two-person approach, with simple, interactive, and dynamic emotional cues during simple, complex, and hyper-complex emotional contexts.
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VANUTELLI, MARIA ELIDE. "SHARING EMOTIONS IN SOCIAL LIFE: NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM INTERACTIVE NEUROSCIENCE." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/17223.

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Il tema delle emozioni è sempre stato considerato marginale rispetto allo studio della cognizione umana, nonostante la ricerca sull’argomento sia sempre stata circondata da grande interesse. Tuttavia negli ultimi 30 anni si è affacciata una nuova prospettiva che descrive le emozioni come cause, mediatori o conseguenze di altri processi psicologici, ma soprattutto delle relazioni interpersonali. Il primo studio della presente Tesi di Dottorato è stato concepito come un paradigma di induzione emotiva allo scopo di individuare alcuni marcatori biologici legati all’esperienza soggettiva, all’interno di una prospettiva multimetodologica. In seguito, nel tentativo di considerare anche una dimensione sociale della condivisione emotiva, è stato condotto il secondo studio proponendo stimoli che rappresentassero interazioni reali tra due soggetti interagenti. Questi potevano variare anche in base alla vicinanza filogenetica, ipotizzando che, grazie a meccanismi di mirroring e simulazione, la percezione delle emozioni altrui possa essere più immediata quando l’altro soggetto viene percepito come simile. Infine, l’idea che alcune variabili legate all’interlocutore sociale siano in grado di modulare la capacità di entrare in risonanza con le emozioni altrui è stata approfondita con il terzo studio: un compito sociale reale con pradigma hyperscanning. L’obiettivo era quello di esplorare la presenza di pattern di sincronizzazione durante il compito eseguito in modo cooperativo. In conclusione, i tre studi sono stati condotti seguendo un livello di complessità crescente, da una prospettiva su singolo soggetto ad un approccio diadico, tramite l’utilizzo di stimoli emotivi standard, interattivi e dinamici applicati a contesti semplici, complessi e iper-complessi.
Despite the great interest addressed to the topic of emotions, it has always been treated as a marginal issue if compared to cognition. Nonetheless in the last 30 years a new perspective suggested that emotions are effectively the causes, mediators, or consequences of other psychological processes, and, above all, of interpersonal relations. The first study of the present Doctoral Thesis was conceived as an emotion induction paradigm in the attempt to identify some biological markers of the subjective emotional experience within a multi-method perspective. Then, in the attempt to move a step forward in describing the social dimension of the emotional sharing, the second study was designed by creating emotional stimuli that represented real interactions between two inter-agents. They could also vary for phylogenetic closeness following the hypothesis that, thanks to mirroring and simulation processes, emotion perception is easier when the other agent is perceived as similar. Finally, the idea that some variables related to the social encounter are able to modulate the capacity to resonate with others’ emotions was better explored in the last study: a real social cooperative task in the form of a hyperscanning paradigm. The aim was to explore the presence of synchronized patterns during the joint action. To conclude, the three studies have been designed according to an increased level of complexity, from a single-subject perspective towards a two-person approach, with simple, interactive, and dynamic emotional cues during simple, complex, and hyper-complex emotional contexts.
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Languasco, Silvia <1987&gt. "Crimine e follia. La costruzione sociale della devianza tra diritto, neuroscienze e psichiatria." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/4189.

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La devianza,così come i concetti di crimine e follia che include, sono socialmente costruiti. Ogni cultura ha i propri criminali e i propri folli caratterizzati dall'essere anormali, diversi dalla norma. Proprio in questi soggetti, anche storicamente e soprattutto in Occidente, si è rintracciato l'elemento disturbatore, perturbante l'ordine pubblico, che apporta dolore, sofferenza e problemi agli altri componenti della società. Nella contemporaneità, nel tentativo di trovare delle spiegazioni all'agire criminale, hanno fatto ingresso nel campo penalistico le neuroscienze forensi che forniscono una spiegazione di tipo biologico ai comportamenti devianti. Il rischio paventato da molti studiosi al riguardo dell'utilizzo di queste tecniche mediche usate (recentemente anche in Italia) come prove in tribunale comprovanti la parziale o totale mancanza della capacità di intendere e di volere dell'imputato, è quello di un ritorno al paradigma determinista. Paradigma che richiama la teoria dell'atavismo di Cesare Lombroso per l'impostazione riduzionista. Se l'imaging cerebrale e la genetica molecolare sono fertili terreni scientifici che possono portare a scoperte importanti sul funzionamento del cervello e del comportamento umano, anche criminale, se non usate con cautela rischiano di creare delle idee che negano la possibilità di scelta e l'esistenza del libero arbitrio, che portano a sovrapporre le figure di matti e rei, che sminuiscono le discipline di cura privandole della loro ragion d'essere portando a soluzioni che escludono definitivamente i colpevoli dalla società e che non contemplano l'efficacia della prevenzione. Affinché nell'immediato futuro questi risvolti non si verifichino è necessario che la criminologia amplifichi il suo impianto interdisciplinare e che adotti uno sguardo antropologico sull'essere umano che delinque, analizzandolo nella sua completezza e complessità. Solo così è possibile arrivare a comprendere il perché si delinque e a prospettare soluzioni alla questione criminale che pensino al bene della società ma anche a quello del criminale.
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12

Teneggi, Chiara. "Lo spazio senso-motorio come rappresentazione dei comportamenti intersoggettivi : una nuova ipotesi sperimentale dalla filosofia alle neuroscienze." Thesis, Paris 1, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013PA010614.

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La recherche s'appuie sur trois hypothèses fondamentales : 1) il existe un lien entre les processus cognitifs de bas et haut niveau; 2) l'espace sensori-rnoteur est une perception subjective; et 3) l'espace sensori-rnoteur varie en fonction des différentes conduites à l'intérieur des interactions sociales. La thèse soutient que l'espace sensori-rnoteur se laisse modeler par la simple co-présence humaine et par des interactions coopératives plutôt que non-coopératives. Les chapitres 1, II, III, ont pour but de décomposer et d'expliquer la signification des hypothèses 1), 2) et 3) qui débouchent sur la formulation de la thèse centrale que le chapitre TV démontrera expérimentalement. Le chapitre V ouvre des perspectives éthiques en formulant une nouvelle hypothèse sur le lien qui pourrait exister entre la perception de l'espace en situation d'interaction sociale et les jugements moraux. La recherche met en œuvre plusieurs des disciplines qui concourent aux sciences cognitives: la neuro-psychologie expérimentale, certains aspects de la psychologie sociale, mais aussi l'histoire de la philosophie et la philosophie de l'esprit contemporaine
This research arises from the following three main hypotheses: 1) Low and high-level cognitive processes are bound together; 2) Sensorimotor space is a subjective perception; and 3) Sensorimotor space varies as a function of different types of social behaviours. The thesis argues that sensorimotor space is shaped by both mere co-presence of another human body and cooperative or uncooperative interactions. Chapters l, Il, III aim at analyzing and explaining the meaning of the first, the second and the third hypothesis in order to advance the primary thesis. Chapter V opens up an ethical perspective about a possible bound between spatial perception and moral evaluations during social interactions. This work is enriched by several constitutive disciplines of cognitive sciences : conternporary philosophy, philosophy of mind, experimental neuropsychology and some topics studied by social psychology
La ricerca ha preso le mosse da tre ipotesi fondamentali: 1) Esiste un legame tra processi cognitivi di basso ed alto livello; 2) Lo spazio senso-motorio è una percezione soggettiva; 3) Lo spazio senso-motorio varia in funzione delle diverse modalità di interazione sociale. La tesi sostiene che lo spazio senso-motorio si lascia modulare dalla semplice co-presenza di un altro agente umano e da interazioni cooperative e non cooperative. I capitoli I, II, III, hanno lo scopo di scomporre e spiegare il significato della prima, seconda e terza ipotesi; giungendo a formulare la tesi centrale che sarà poi dimostrata sperimentalmente nel capitolo IV. Il capitolo V introduce future linee di ricerca nell’ambito dell’etica proponendo una nuova ipotesi sul legame che potrebbe sussistere tra la percezione dello spazio durante l’interazione sociale e i giudizi morali. Il lavoro svolto chiama ad operare insieme diverse discipline che concorrono a formare le scienze cognitive: la storia della filosofia, la filosofia della mente contemporanea, la neuropsicologia sperimentale ed alcuni temi della psicologia sociale
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13

Hattingh, Coenraad Jacobus. "Neurobiological aspects of social anxiety disorder." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10865.

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This thesis investigates the functional neuroanatomy of SAD [Social Anxiety Disorder] using an activation likelihood-estimate meta-analysis (ALE meta-analysis), and explores the structural basis of SAD using a cortical thickness and subcortical gray matter volume analysis.
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14

Nagel, Saskia K. "Ethics and the neurosciences ethical and social consequences of neuroscientific progress." Paderborn Mentis, 2008. http://d-nb.info/1001079248/04.

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15

Jazayeri, Mina. "Neural correlates of socio-emotional states in macaques." Thesis, Lyon, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017LYSE1281/document.

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Un pilier d'une vie sociale fructueuse est la capacité de prédire correctement les actions des autres et de percevoir leurs états émotionnels. Des études d'interaction sociale chez les primates ont montré qu'ils sont capables de déduire ce que les autres peuvent entendre ou voir, et de prédire leurs émotions et intentions. Il a été montré qu'ils peuvent manifester différents degrés de comportements prosociaux, allant de la coopération jusqu'à des comportements altruistes et empathiques. Des études d'imageries fonctionnelles chez l'homme ont identifié l'insula antérieur (AI) comme une région cérébrale clé dans le traitement de l'empathie.Spécifiquement, cette région apparait comme l'aire intégratrice des activités liées à la douleur ressentie et observée, suggérant que l'empathie pourrait impliquer un modèle « miroir » des propriétés affectives et sensorielles de la douleur d'autrui. Cependant, les bases neuronales de ce processus n'ont pas encore été découvertes. Dans le but d'examiner le rôle de l'AI dans le traitement de l'empathie, nous avons enregistré l'activité des neurones dans l'AI de deux singes pendant qu'ils sont engagés dans une tâche sociale leur permettant de délivrer un stimulus aversif ou appétitif à leur partenaire, à lui-même ou à personne. Les résultats comportementaux ont montré que les singes prennent en compte le bien-être de leur partenaire. Les données neuronales rapportent différentes populations neuronales répondant aux stimuli aversif ou appétitif et ceux délivrés à soi ou à autrui. Notamment, la population neuronale répondant au stimulus aversif a montré trois profils d'activité : une représentation neuronale de l'expérience désagréable du partenaire, une représentation neuronale de sa propre sensation désagréable et une minorité de neurones montrant des propriétés miroirs entre soi et autrui. Nos résultats suggèrent un modèle neuronal de l'empathie représentant des propriétés distinctes entre l'expérience vécue et observée
A cornerstone of a successful social life is the ability to correctly predict others’ actions and empathically perceive their emotional states. Studies on primates’ social interaction have shown that thanks to their keen cognitive abilities monkeys are able to deduce what others can hear or see, and to predict others’ emotions and intentions. It has been shown that primates are able to display different degrees of prosocial behavior, from cooperation to even altruism and empathically driven behavior. Studies using fMRI techniques inhumans have identified the anterior insula (AI) as a key brain region in the processing of empathy. More precisely, this region emerged as the overlapping area activated for both experienced and observed pain,leading to the idea that empathy for pain may involve a mirror-matching model of the affective and sensory features of others' pain. However, the neuronal basis of this process has yet to be uncovered. In an attempt toextend and to investigate the role of the AI in the process of empathy we have recorded single cell activity inthe AI of two monkeys while they were engaged in a social task where based on the performed trials positiveor negative reinforcements could be delivered to self, another monkey, or nobody. Behavioral results showed that monkeys take into account the welfare of their partners even when this has no impact on their ownwelfare. Our neuronal findings report that distinct population of neurons respond differentially to outcomesfor self and other, and to appetitive and aversive outcomes. Interestingly the neuronal population responding to the aversive outcome showed mainly three profiles of activity: neuronal representation of conspecifics’unpleasant experience, neuronal representation of own unpleasant experience and a minority of neurons showing mirroring properties between self and other. Thus, our results suggest a neuronal model of empathy that accounts for the distinctive features between feeling and empathizing
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16

Bednash, Ceccily J. "Art Therapy and Neuroscience: A Model for Wellness." Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School, 2016. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/297.

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This research aimed to illuminate the connections between art therapy and neuroscience by using qualitative research methods. Two art therapists and a psychologist with neuroscience backgrounds were interviewed. Analyzing artwork made by the researcher and results of the interviews allowed for themes to emerge: connection, perspective, desire for understanding and being trapped in time. The researcher’s further inquiry into these emergent themes allowed for the idea of the creative spirit to present itself as a basic human need which has existed since the beginning of time. Using this newfound perspective the researcher has embraced the importance of creating an art therapy model that focuses on a holistic approach to life-long wellness which uses creative expression as a means for understanding, connection, and healing.
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Pegoretti, Gianpaolo <1979&gt. "Apprendere l'intelligenza : il pensiero di Reuven Feuerstein alla luce delle neuroscienze cognitive." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/1227.

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The central topic of the thesis is the comparison between the work of Reuven Feuerstein, that is Structural Cognitive modifiability and Mediated Learning Experience, and the neuroscientific research. By this comparison I evaluated the merits and flaws of Feuerstein's theories, and I also revised such theories according to neuroscientific studies. Moreover, I questioned the meaning of learning and cognition, re-thinking them in the light of intelligence modifiability. The thesis goes on with a reflection upon the epistemological stance of neuroscience, aimed at solving the nature/nurture dualism in learning. Brain plasticity binds learning to biology, that is to say, those processes that are at the core of neural flexibility and change, also enable cognition. Therefore, brain plasticity as the basis for the mind, which, despite genetic constraints, remains open to experience.
Argomento centrale della tesi è il confronto tra il lavoro di Reuven Feuerstein, ossia la Modificabilità Cognitiva Strutturale e l'Esperienza di apprendimento Mediato, con gli studi neuroscientifici. Tramite tale confronto vengono valutati i limiti e la portata delle teorie di Feuerstein, rielaborandole in coerenza con le ricerche sul cervello. Inoltre sono messi in discussione i significati di apprendimento e cognizione, soprattutto in relazione alla possibilità di modificare l'intelligenza. La tesi prosegue con una riflessione sullo statuto epistemologico delle neuroscienze, volta a sciogliere le dicotomie natura/cultura nell'apprendimento. Il tema che àncora l'apprendimento alla biologia è la plasticità neurale, ossia l'insieme dei processi che sono alla base della mutevolezza e della flessibilità cerebrale, e che permettono la cognizione. Plasticità quindi come base della mente, che, pur presentando dei vincoli di tipo generico, rimane aperta all'esperienza.
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18

Chang, Luke Joseph. "Deconstructing the Role of Expectations in Cooperative Behavior with Decision Neuroscience." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/223343.

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This project attempts to understand the role of expectations in cooperative behavior using the interdisciplinary approach of Decision Neuroscience. While cooperation provides the foundation for a successful society, the underlying bio-psycho-social mechanisms remain surprisingly poorly understood. This investigation deconstructs cooperation into the specific behaviors of trust, reciprocation, and norm enforcement using the Trust and Ultimatum Games from behavioral economics and combines formal modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging to understand the neurocomputational role of expectations in these behaviors. The results indicate that people appear to use context specific shared expectations when making social decisions. These beliefs are malleable and appear to be dynamically updated after an interaction. Emotions such as guilt and anger can be formally operationalized in terms of others' expectations and appear to be processed by a specific neural system involving the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and supplemental motor cortex. Importantly, these neural signals appear to motivate people to not only behave consistent with these expectations, but also to help others update their beliefs when these expectations are violated. Further, violations of social expectations appear to promote enhanced memory for norm violators. This work demonstrates the neural and computational basis of moral sentiments.
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Hattingh, Coenraad Jacobus. "The structural neurobiology of social anxiety disorder : a clinical neuroimaging study." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15544.

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Includes bibliographical references
While a number of studies have explored the functional neuroanatomy of social anxiety disorder (SAD), comparatively few studies have investigated the structural underpinnings in SAD. 18 psychopharmacologically and psychotherapeutically naïve adult patients with a primary Axis I diagnosis of generalized social anxiety disorder and 18 demographically (age, gender and education) matched healthy controls underwent 3T structural magnetic resonance imaging. A manual tracing protocol was specifically developed to compute the volume of the most prominent subcortical gray matter structures implicated in SAD by previous functional research. Cortical thickness was estimated using an automated algorithm and whole brain analyses of white matter structure were performed using FSL's tract - based spatial statistics comparing fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) in individuals with SAD. Manual tracing demonstrated that compared to controls, SAD patients showed an enlarged right globus pallidus. Cortical thickness analyses demonstrated significant cortical thinning in the left isthmus of the cingulate gyrus, the left temporal pole, and the left superior temporal gyrus. Analyses of white matter tractographic data demonstrated reduced FA in in the genu, splenium and tapetum of the corpus callosum. Additionally reduced FA was noticed in the fornix and the right cingulum. Reduced FA was also noted in bilateral corticospinal tracts and the right corona radiata. The results demonstrate structural alterations in limbic circuitry as well as involvement of the basal glanglia and their cortical projections and input pathways.
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Longo, Giuseppe <1961&gt. "Cognizione ed emozione: processi di interpretazione del testo letterario dalle neuroscienze cognitive all'educazione emotiva." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/1018.

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L’elaborato esamina il rapporto tra neuroscienze cognitive e lettura del testo letterario, per verificare se essa può diventare strumento per l’educazione emotiva. Analizza il rapporto tra testo e lettore e i processi di comprensione ed interpretazione dal punto di vista neuroscientifico, approfondendo in particolare le connessioni tra emozione, metafora e immagine mentale. Attraverso lo studio della cognizione incorporata, della simulazione mentale e dell’empatia il lavoro spiega come il testo letterario possa diventare un mezzo utile per rinforzare la competenza emotiva.
The dissertation examines the connection between cognitive neurosciences and reading literature, to verify if the literary text can be used in the field of emotional education. It analyzes the brain-based interaction between text and reader and the processes of comprehension and interpretation, particularly by investigating how emotion, metaphor, and mental imagery are connected. Embodied cognition, mental simulation and empathy are also studied, to explain how the literary text can become a useful tool to enhance students’ emotional competence.
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Matheson, Laura. "Neural circuits underlying the social modulation of vocal communication." Thesis, McGill University, 2014. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=123131.

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Songbirds use vocal signals for social communication. Song can be produced in a variety of social contexts, and previous studies have demonstrated that the structure and organization of song significantly changes across social contexts. However, little is known about the neural circuits and neurotransmitters that contribute to the social modulation of song. Here we combine behavioural, immunocytochemical, and pharmacological experiments to reveal the mechanisms underlying context-dependent changes to syllable sequencing and structure in Bengalese finches. Throughout the circuit underlying vocal motor control, we found that expression of the immediate early gene EGR-1 was greater when birds sang alone compared to when they sang in a courtship context. Investigation of EGR-1 expression in catecholamine-producing neurons suggested a role of catecholamines in the social modulation of song. To test this idea, we analyzed the effect of amphetamine on song organization and found that amphetamine reproduced social context effects on syllable structure but did not affect sequencing. These data support the notion that the social modulation of neural activity within the song system underlies context-dependent changes in song, and that catecholamines like dopamine contribute to the social modulation of vocal behaviour.
Les oiseaux chanteurs utilisent des signaux vocaux pour la communication sociale. Le chant peut être produit dans divers contexts sociaux et des etudes anterieures one démontré que la structure et l'organisation du chant variant considérablement selon les contexts sociaux. Cependant, nous savons peu de choses sur les circuits neuronaux et les neurotransmetteurs qui contribuent à la modulation sociale du chant. Nous combinons ici des experiences comportementales, immunocytochimiques et pharmacologiques afin de découvrir les mécanismes qui sous-tendent les changements contextuels åa la structure et à l'enchaînement des syllabes chez les dominos. Dans l'ensemble du circuit qui sous-tend le contrôle moteur vocal, nous avons découvert que l'expression du gène précoce immédiat EGR-1 était plus importante lorsque les oiseaux chantaient seuls que lorsqu'ils chantaient dans un contexte de pariade. Un examen de l'expression du gène EGR-1 dans les neurones producteurs de catécholamine donne à penser que les catécholamines jouent un rôle dans la modulation sociale du chant. Pour vérifier cette idée, nous avons analysé l'effet de l'amphétamine sur l'organisation du chant et nous avons découvert que l'amphétamine reproduisait les effets du contexte social sur la structure des syllabes, mais qu'elle n'avait aucun effet sur l'enchaînement des syllabes. Ces données appuient la notion selon laquelle la modulation sociale de l'activité neuronale dans le système de chant sous-tend les changements contextuels dans le chant et que les catécholamines, comme la dopamine, contribuent à la modulation sociale du comportement vocal.
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Van, der Merwe Nicolina Thandiwe. "Blushing and gaze avoidance in social anxiety disorder : a structural neuroanatomical investigation." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13370.

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Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common psychiatric condition characterised by fear and avoidance of social situations. Lifetime prevalence is 5-16% and co-morbidity with other mood and substance abuse disorders is common. Symptoms including cognitive, behavioural and physiological components vary between individuals. Of these, blushing and gaze fear and avoidance are regarded as cardinal symptoms. First line treatment of SAD involves SSRIs and cognitive behavioural therapy, while surgery may also be considered for excessive blushing. Blushing and gaze avoidance are thought to have an evolutionary adaptive advantage, promoting the display of submissive behaviour and appeasement in threatening situations. MRI research has demonstrated differences on functional and structural neuroimaging between patients with SAD and healthy controls (HCs). However, little is known about the neurocircuitry underlying gaze fear and avoidance or increased blushing propensity or how the severity of these traits correlate with the neuroimaging differences found in SAD. In this research, I explored the neuroanatomy of blushing propensity and gaze fear and avoidance in the context of SAD. Methods: 18 SAD patients and 18 HCs underwent structural MRI scans and self-report scales were administered to assess their symptom severity, blushing propensity and gaze fear and avoidance. Structural data was analysed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Regression and contrast analyses were used to correlate blushing propensity and gaze anxiety and avoidance symptoms with brain volumes, controlling for total grey matter volume, age and level of education. Results: Anxiety, blushing propensity and gaze fear and avoidance symptoms were all significantly higher in SAD patients (p<0.001). Brainstem volumes were increased for higher blushing scores a (p<0.01), while the volumes of left inferior parietal lobe b (p=0.04) and left occipital cortex a (p<0.01) were decreased. With increased gaze fear and avoidance, there were associated decreases in the right posterior cingulate cortex a (p<0.01), right occipital lobe b (p=0.03) and right fusiform gyrus a (p<0.01). Increased blushing and gaze symptom severity considered together, was associated with increased brainstem volume a (p<0.01) and decreased pons/cerebellum b (p=0.001), right cerebellum b (p=0.009), left cerebellum c (p<0.001) and left inferior parietal lobe a (p<0.1), volumes. Contrast analysis of SAD and HC brain volumes revealed a greater grey matter volume in HCs in the regions of left occipital cortex (p<0.01), left anterior cingulate (p<0.01) and right inferior parietal lobe (p<0.01) when compared to SAD patients. Increased symptom severity in SAD was significantly associated with higher volumes in the left premotor cortex (p<0.01), right hippocampus (p<0.01), left orbitofrontal cortex (p<0.01) and right superior temporal cortex (p<0.01). Possible areas for of interest for volume differences between SAD and HCs include total grey matter volume (d =0.83), left and right anterior cingulate cortex (d =0.68 and d =0.65), and left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (d =0.55 and d =0.54), yet these differences were not significantly different. (a uncorrected peak levels b uncorrected cluster level, c corrected cluster level). Conclusion: Differences in brain volumes pertaining to blushing and gaze fear and avoidance in SAD patients may be a contributing factor or a consequence of these core symptoms, and a potential biomarker for SAD. Future studies could build on this preliminary research with increased sample sizes, and determine the possible effects of reduced symptom severity and treatment options on brain structure and function. Most importantly, an investigation of the genetic underpinnings and functional neural correlates of blushing and gaze avoidance behaviour may enhance our understanding of the complex aetiology of these cardinal SAD symptoms, thereby improving our understanding of SAD as a psychiatric disorder and facilitating better patient care and management.
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23

Hobeika, Lise. "Interplay between multisensory integration and social interaction in auditory space : towards an integrative neuroscience approach of proxemics." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017USPCB116.

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L'homme ne perçoit pas l'espace de manière homogène : le cerveau code l'espace proche du corps différemment de l'espace lointain. Cette distinction joue un rôle primordial notre comportement social : l'espace proche du corps, appelé espace péripersonnel (EPP), serait une zone de protection du corps, où la présence d'un individu est perçue comme une menace. L'EPP a été initialement décrit par la psychologie sociale et l'anthropologie, comme un facteur de la communication humaine. L'EPP a été plus tard décrit chez le singe par des études de neurophysiologie comme un espace codé par des neurones multisensoriels. Ces neurones déchargent uniquement en réponse à des évènements sensoriels situés à une distance limitée du corps du singe (qu'ils soient tactiles, visuels ou auditifs). L'ensemble de ces neurones multisensoriels code ainsi l'EPP tout autour du corps. Ce codage exclusif de l'EPP est crucial pour interagir avec le monde extérieur, car c'est dans cet espace que sont réalisées les actions visant à protéger le corps ou visant à atteindre des objets autour de soi. Le codage mutlisensoriel de l'EPP pendant des interactions sociales est à ce jour peu étudié. Dans ce travail de recherche, nous avons réalisé plusieurs études en vu d'identifier des facteurs contribuant à la perméabilité de l'EPP et ses aspects adaptatifs. Une première étude a examiné les frontières latérales de l'EPP chez des individus seuls, en mesurant l'interaction d'une source sonore dynamique s'approchant du corps avec le temps de détection de stimulations tactiles. Cette étude a montré des différences dans la taille de l'EPP entre les deux hémi-espaces, qui seraient liées à la latéralité manuelle. Une seconde étude a exploré les modulations de l'EPP dans des contextes sociaux. Elle a montré que l'EPP est modifié lorsque des individus réalisent une tâche en collaboration. La troisième étude est une recherche méthodologique qui vise à dépasser les limitations des paradigmes comportementaux utilisés actuellement pour mesurer l'EPP. Elle propose de nouvelles pistes pour évaluer comment les stimuli approchant le corps sont intégrés en fonction de leur distance et du contexte multisensoriel dans lequel ils sont traités. L'ensemble de ces travaux montre l'intérêt d'étudier l'intégration multisensorielle autour du corps dans l'espace 3D pour comprendre pleinement l'EPP, et les impacts potentiels de facteurs sociaux sur les processus multisensoriels de bas-niveaux. De plus, ces études soulignent l'importance pour les neurosciences sociales de développer des protocoles expérimentaux réellement sociaux, à plusieurs participants
The space near the body, called peripersonal space (PPS), was originally studied in social psychology and anthropology as an important factor in interpersonal communication. It was later described by neurophysiological studies in monkeys as a space mapped with multisensory neurons. Those neurons discharge only when events are occurring near the body (be it tactile, visual or audio information), delineating the space that people consider as belonging to them. The human brain also codes events that are near the body differently from those that are farther away. This dedicated brain function is critical to interact satisfactorily with the external world, be it for defending oneself or to reach objects of interest. However, little is known about how this function is impacted by real social interactions. In this work, we have conducted several studies aiming at understanding the factors that contribute to the permeability and adaptive aspects of PPS. A first study examined lateral PPS for individuals in isolation, by measuring reaction time to tactile stimuli when an irrelevant sound is looming towards the body of the individual. It revealed an anisotropy of reaction time across hemispaces, that we could link to handedness. A second study explored the modulations of PPS in social contexts. It was found that minimal social instructions could influence the shape of peripersonal space, with a complex modification of behaviors in collaborative tasks that outreaches the handedness effect. The third study is a methodological investigation attempting to go beyond the limitations of the behavioral methods measuring PPS, and proposing a new direction to assess how stimuli coming towards the body are integrated according to their distance and the multisensory context in which they are processed. Taken together, our work emphasizes the importance of investigating multisensory integration in 3D space around the body to fully capture PPS mechanisms, and the potential impacts of social factors on low-level multisensory processes. Moreover, this research provides evidence that neurocognitive social investigations, in particular on space perception, benefit from going beyond the traditional isolated individual protocols towards actual live social interactive paradigms
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Garrigan, Beverley. "A social information processing approach to moral decision-making and moral development : bridging the gap between developmental psychology and social neuroscience." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2017. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/66552/.

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In order to bring together developmental psychology and social neuroscience approaches to moral decision-making, several theoretical approaches were integrated, creating the Social Information Processing-Moral Decision-making framework (SIP-MDM). Initially, a systematic review and meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of moral decision-making was conducted. The meta-analysis identified brain regions that consistently show increased activation when making moral decisions. Analysis also revealed that making one’s own moral response decisions is associated with increased activation in additional brain areas compared to when making moral evaluations. Secondly, an empirical study using a typically developing sample of eighty 11-18 year olds explored hypotheses generated from the SIP-MDM framework. Moral reasoning, working memory and some social information processing (SIP) skills were found to positively correlate with age, and moral reasoning predicted some steps of the SIP MDM framework. There was a significant relationship between moral reasoning and working memory but not between moral reasoning and perspective taking, empathy, or emotion recognition, calling largely untested theoretical assumptions into question. There were also no significant relationships between moral reasoning and self or parent reported behavioural difficulties. A final study used two different instruments to measure and compare the moral reasoning of twenty 11-21 year olds with acquired brain injuries (ABIs) to twenty neurologically healthy (NH) adolescents, matched on age and gender. The Sociomoral Reasoning Measure-Short Form (SRM-SF) and the So-Mature measures had satisfactory psychometric properties for the ABI and NH group. The ABI group showed developmentally immature moral reasoning compared to the NH group for reasoning about moral response decisions, based on scores for the So- Mature, but there were no significant group differences for reasoning about moral values, based on scores for the SRM-SF. So-Mature scores negatively correlated with self-report behavioural difficulties for the ABI group but there were no significant relationships between moral reasoning and behaviour for the NH group.
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Hall, Frank Scott. "The behavioural and neurochemical effects of social separation on the rat." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.320115.

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Mosher, Clayton Paul. "Neurons In The Monkey Amygdala Detect Eye Contact During Naturalistic Social Interactions." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/332845.

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Eye contact is a fundamental means of social interaction among primates. In both humans and non-human primate societies, eye contact precedes and signals aggression or prosocial behaviors. Initiating and maintaining short periods of eye contact is essential during social interactions that build trust and promote cooperation. How the brain detects and orchestrates social exchanges mediated by eye contact remains an open question in neuroscience. Theories of social neuroscience speculate that the social brain in primates contains neurons specialized to detect and respond to eye-contact. This dissertation reports the discovery and characterization of a class of neurons, located in the amygdala of monkeys, that is activated selectively during eye contact. The discovery of these cells was facilitated by (1) characterization of the response properties of neurons in the amygdala during a canonical image-viewing task and (2) development of a reliable and quantifiable method for eliciting naturalistic eye contact between monkeys in the laboratory setting. The functional role of eye contact cells remains to be determined. The data presented in this dissertation confirm the role of the amygdala in social behaviors and allows for the formulation of new hypotheses about the cellular mechanisms within the amygdala that support complex social interactions among primates.
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27

Holmes, Marcus. "The Force of Face-to-Face Diplomacy in International Politics." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1307037152.

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28

Atmore, Katherine H. "Locus-coeruleus norepinephrine system function in a developmental animal model of schizophrenia: the socially isolated rat." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24872.

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Introduction: Schizophrenia is a chronic, debilitating mental disorder characterised by positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. Current treatment regimens fail to adequately address the cognitive and negative symptoms of the disorder. Social isolation rearing (SIR) is a well-established developmental adversity paradigm which is used as an animal model of schizophrenia and usually studied in male rats. Previous SIR studies have found attentional abnormalities in isolated rats in behavioural tests which correspond to the results of studies investigating the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia in patient trials. Isolated rats also display abnormal social responses which may be of relevance to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The primary aim of this study was to build on existing SIR literature by performing behavioural tests in socially isolated rats to address attentional function. Neurochemical investigations were performed on projections of the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system, known to be involved in attentional function, as research on this system is surprisingly sparse. The secondary aim of the study was to address the negative symptoms of schizophrenia using ultrasonic vocalisation recording to investigate the calling behaviour of isolated rats in response to a novel context. The study included both male and female rats so that sex differences could be studied in the context of social isolation. Methodology: Sprague-Dawley rats were weaned at postnatal day (p) 21 and randomly allocated to one of four housing groups; female socialised (n=50), female isolated (n=50), male socialised (n=38) and male isolated (n=38). Socialised animals were housed 4 per cage (single sex) and isolated animals were housed alone. Animals were weighed and cages cleaned weekly as part of a minimal handling protocol required for SIR. After 8 weeks in their housing conditions (p78-82) rats underwent one of two behavioural paradigms: three phase novel object recognition or ultrasonic vocalisation recordings. Between p90-94 animals were rapidly decapitated and the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex were dissected out for use in one of two neurochemical analyses. For in-vitro superfusion experiments the tissue was used immediately to quantify functional release of radioactively-labelled norepinephrine when stimulated with glutamate under varying conditions. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and bicinchoninic acid (BCA) protein assays was performed to quantify norepinephrine and glutamate concentrations expressed in relation to the wet weight of the tissue and amount of protein in the tissue. Results: Behavioural and neurochemical changes were induced by the SIR model. Isolated animals were found to respond to novel objects abnormally compared to control animals. During initial exposure to a novel environment in the first phase of the novel object recognition test isolated animals demonstrated hypoactivity. An overall reduction in the fractional release of norepinephrine when stimulated with combinations of glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was demonstrated in the hippocampus of isolated rats. Sex differences were evident in a number of experiments. Female rats were found to be hyperactive in the three phases of the novel object recognition test compared to males and also had elevated hippocampal norepinephrine activity as well as an increased concentration of norepinephrine in this area. Male rats on the other hand had an elevated prefrontal cortex norepinephrine activity and concentration. Conclusion: The SIR paradigm is able to induce behavioural and neurochemical changes in both female and male rats. The results of this study reinforce the usefulness of SIR as a model for schizophrenia as the way in which isolated animals responded to novel objects was different to their socialised counterparts. This difference implies an abnormal attentional response which corresponds to the cognitive symptoms described in schizophrenia. Furthermore, the neurochemical experiments performed in this study are the first of their kind and provide preliminary evidence for the GABAergic mechanisms underlying attentional abnormalities associated with SIR. The prevalence of sex differences throughout testing also provides strong evidence for the inclusion of both sexes in future studies to avoid the omission of potentially important findings. Future studies to refine and build on neurochemical analyses in developmental models of schizophrenia, such as SIR will potentially provide a mechanistic understanding of cognitive dysfunction as well as useful translational information for treating the human disorder.
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29

Croft, Katie Elizabeth. "Exploring the role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in human social learning: a lesion study." Diss., University of Iowa, 2009. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/350.

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Converging evidence suggests a critical role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in social cognition, but its specific contribution to various aspects of social cognition, including the acquisition and updating of complex social information, is not well understood or documented via a systematic experimental approach. The primary aim of this dissertation is to determine whether the vmPFC is necessary for the integration of complex social information in order to form normal moral and social judgments about people. In the first of two studies presented here, I examined the roles of the vmPFC and the hippocampus in updating one's moral judgment of others. I hypothesized that both the vmPFC and the hippocampus are critical--but in different ways--for updating character judgments in light of new social and moral information. To test this hypothesis, I used a novel moral "updating" task and compared the performances of patients with bilateral vmPFC damage to patients with bilateral hippocampal damage (HC), and brain-damaged comparison (BDC) patients. The results suggest that the vmPFC may attribute emotional salience to moral information, whereas the hippocampus may provide necessary contextual information from which to make appropriate character judgments. In the second study, I specifically examined whether the vmPFC is necessary for the integration of simple versus complex, and social versus nonsocial information in order to form normal judgments about people. I hypothesized that patients with circumscribed damage to the vmPFC would be impaired in integrating complex social information. To test this prediction, I employed a novel decision making task and compared the performances of vmPFC patients with BDC patients, and a group of normal, healthy individuals. I also explored which anatomical sectors within the vmPFC system are responsible for normal social information integration. Going against my predictions, most participants were better at making the best choice when more information was available. On the whole, all groups were more accurate in choosing the best nonsocial choice versus the social choice, and this is attributed to the fact that the nonsocial trials were much easier for the participants. Overall, vmPFC patients were inferior to the other groups in choosing the best option for both the social and nonsocial conditions, which suggests that vmPFC patients may have a general impairment in integrating information. The subjective ratings data revealed that the vmPFC patients: perceived the choices to be more difficult overall, had difficulty discriminating between the best and worse options, did not provide the same subjective influence weights as the comparison groups, and endorsed social choices being overall more difficult than nonsocial choices. The neuroanatomical data revealed that unilateral left vmPFC damage may have contributed the most to impairment in making the correct choice for the social condition, and overall, left hemisphere vmPFC lesion volume correlated negatively with percentage correct on my experimental task.
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Hollin, Gregory J. S. "Social order and disorder in autism." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2013. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13787/.

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This thesis investigates autism as it has been understood in the cognitive and social (neuro)sciences, within the United Kingdom, since 1985. Of specific interest is how these sciences discover, construct, and experiment upon individuals who are understood as socially abnormal. Theoretically, the thesis is positioned between Foucauldian History and Philosophy of Science, Medical Sociology, and Science and Technology Studies. Empirically, two key sources of information are relied upon. Firstly, there is an extensive critical reading of the published literature from 1985 to the present. Secondly, twenty qualitative research interviews were conducted with academic researchers, based within the UK, and with core interests in psychology in general and autism in particular. It is firstly argued that the cognitive sciences rely upon a particular, historically novel, construction of the social in order to articulate autism as social disorder. It is then argued that, although autism is frequently reported as heterogeneous and illusory within the laboratory, social disorder appears self-evident when the autistic individual is required to interact with both the researcher and broader society. Following these findings it is argued that the researcher does not observe autism but, rather, that they achieve it. Finally it is argued that the language of autism is itself capable of ushering in novel conceptualisations of social conduct that may apply to all individuals and not just those diagnosed with the condition. Following these empirical findings it is argued that autism is best understood as the consequence of particular socio-historical conditions. It is asked if these socio-historical conditions may include a novel knowledge-power nexus arising in the mid-twentieth century, named here a socio-emotive politics, of which autism is just one consequence.
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Lauharatanahirun, Nina. "The Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms of Social and Non-social Risky Decision-Making." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42671.

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Decisions made under risk have been primarily studied within economic contexts (Platt & Huettel, 2008). This has led to the development of sound methods and models for studying risky choice behavior (Rangel, Camerer & Montague, 2008). In particular, these models are helpful for estimating how much risk an individual is willing to tolerate. However, there may be a limit in the extent to which we can generalize these estimations, in that economic models do not take into account the underlying social preferences that often guide decision makers (Fehr & Camerer, 2007; Fehr & Schmidt, 2004). This suggests that an individualâ s propensity for risk may be different depending on social or non-social information present within the environment (Bohnet, Greig, Herrmann & Zeckhauser, 2008). The present study aimed to: (i) assess how risk preferences may differ across social and non-social contexts; (ii) identify common and distinct neural correlates of social and non-social risk; and (iii) determine neural characteristics associated with individual sensitivities to social and non-social risk. Subjects (N=30) played an adaptation of the Trust Game while their blood-oxygen-level-dependent response was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Differences in risk preferences across social and non-social conditions as well as neuroimaging correlates of social and non-social risk will be discussed.
Master of Science
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32

TAMBURRELLI, CHIARA. "Processi di apprendimento ed emozioni: il contributo delle neuroscienze alla scuola. Indagine tra i docenti italiani." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi del Molise, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11695/98523.

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La sempre maggiore complessità della società contemporanea impone alle figure presenti nella agenzie educative di individuare strumenti utili a catturare l’attenzione di bambini e giovani, a coinvolgerli nella vita scolastica attraverso un nuovo modo di fare scuola. Tale obiettivo può essere raggiunto efficacemente attraverso il coinvolgimento attivo dei ragazzi in forme di apprendimento che agiscono in particolare sulla motivazione e sulle emozioni. Il tema generale della presente ricerca è lo studio dei processi di apprendimento nella relazione pedagogia- neuroscienze e l’analisi dei nuovi modelli educativi e didattici sviluppati sulla base delle conoscenze neuro scientifiche. Riteniamo che la ricaduta in ambito educativo degli studi neuroscientifici possa costituire un’importante base per ogni tipo di discorso concernente la formazione e che la conoscenza dei fenomeni biologici sottesi all’apprendimento possa fornire importanti risposte alla necessità della scuola e degli educatori di avere a disposizioni strategie didattiche più efficaci e rispondenti al target cui sono indirizzate. La prima fase della ricerca è stata l’approfondimento e la comprensione dei meccanismi neurobiologici che regolano e condizionano i processi di maturazione e di sviluppo del cervello umano e dei meccanismi cognitivi attivati e implementati da strategie didattiche adeguate. Sono stati presi in esame, a questo scopo, i nuovi modelli educativi sviluppati dai principali gruppi di ricerca italiani che si occupano di neurodidattica e apprendimento emotivo. La fase successiva della ricerca, immaginata come premessa essenziale ad un agire educativo-didattico che si intende mettere in piedi in studi futuri, è stata quella di indagare quale fosse la posizione dei docenti italiani rispetto al campo di indagine, attraverso la somministrazione di un questionario incentrato sulla dipendenza dei processi apprenditivi da quelli emotivo-motivazionali. Le emozioni poste al centro, quindi, per comprendere il modo in cui viene percepito il loro rapporto con la formazione e l’apprendimento, per individuare le possibilità di utilizzare le emozioni in aula e per delineare un profilo di docente che fa uso delle emozioni nel suo agire didattico.
The growing complexity of today's society requires teachers being able to identify useful tools which can capture the attention of children and young people and involve them in school life. This target can be achieved through new ways of teaching that act on motivation and emotions. This work analyses learning in both the pedagogical-neuroscience relationship and the new educational and didactic models, developed on the basis of neuroscientific knowledge. The first phase of the research consisted of understanding the neurobiological mechanisms which affect the human brain developing and maturation process as well as the cognitive mechanisms activated and implemented by teaching strategies. In this phase the current development of neurobiology educative research in Italy were taken into consideration. In particular, neuroeducational and emotional learning research were analyzed. The next phase of the research was to enquiry the position of the Italian teachers as regards our field of investigation. For this purpose, we used a survey, focused on learning and emotional-motivational processes. Identifying how using emotions in the classroom and outline the teacher's profile able to do it and promote a more effective learning, was the target of this survey. Our results will be the basis for future studies on the contribution of neurosciences and emotions to teaching.
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Duchesne, Annie. "Physiological, neural and affective responses to social evaluative stress in men and women: a question of context and menstrual cycle phases." Thesis, McGill University, 2014. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=121362.

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The experiences of psychological stress are important determinants of one's physical and mental health; therefore, a central focus of today's research is to unveil the relationship between health and stress. One physiological system that has been thoroughly investigated as underlining this complex relationship is the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Although it is a central stress system, the HPA axis response varies greatly across individuals. Research of the past decades demonstrated that certain individual factors contribute to these different stress responses and health outcomes. Indeed, investigation of these factors is central to our comprehension of the underlying mechanisms that link the experience of stress to health. An important, core, factor that shows a strong influence on the HPA axis response to stress, is whether one is a man or a woman. To further comprehend differences between men's and women's stress response, the work presented in this thesis aimed to investigate how the interaction between biological and situational factors affects physiological and psychological stress response in men and women. Therefore, I investigated the effect of variation of women's menstrual cycle phases (biological factor) and that of variation in the gender of an evaluative committee (situational factor) on male and female stress response to a social evaluative stress (giving a speech in front of an evaluative committee). Our results revealed that differences typically observed between men and women regarding their stress response are particularly influenced by women's hormonal milieu and the gender of an evaluative committee. Considering the importance of women's menstrual cycle phase to women's stress response, in the second study, we further examined its effect on the association between the physiological and affective responses to stress. This study was the first demonstration of the moderating effect of menstrual cycle phase on the association between the affective and physiological stress responses. Finally, in the last study for this thesis, I investigated effects of variation in menstrual cycle phase on women's physiological, affective, as well as neural responses to a social evaluative stress. The results from this study replicated the effects from our previous findings, and extended them to include an impact on the neural responses to stress. Specifically, we demonstrated that variation in menstrual cycle phases also significantly influences the association between the physiological and neural responses to a social evaluative stress. The thesis then concludes with a general discussion that addresses some of the questions that the findings from the three studies raise. I also discuss how these current findings expand our understanding of the psychophysiological stress responses in men and women. Study limitations and future directions are also highlighted.
Les expériences de stress psychologique constituent d'importants déterminants de la santé physique et mentale ; ainsi, un intérêt central de la recherché actuelle vise l'élucidation des relations entre la santé et le stress. Un système physiologique particulier fait l'objet d'un examen approfondi en ce qu'il serait fondamental à cette relation complexe, l'axe-hypotalamo-hypophyso-surrénalien. Bien qu'étant un système central de stress, la réponse de l'axe HHS varie considérablement parmi les individus. Les dernières décennies de recherche démontrent que certains facteurs individuels contribuent aux différentes réponses de stress et aux questions de santé. L'étude de ces facteurs devient conséquemment cruciale à notre compréhension des mécanismes sous-jacents liants les expériences du stress à la santé. Un facteur important, sinon majeur, influençant fortement la réponse de stress via l'axe HHS réside dans le fait d'être de sexe féminin ou masculin. Afin de poursuivre l'élucidation de ces différences de sexe quant à la réponse de stress, le travail présenté dans cette thèse vise l'éclaircissement des interactions entre les facteurs biologiques et situationnels d'un stress expérimental. Ainsi, l'effet des phases du cycle menstruel et une variation des genres au sein d'un comité d'évaluation ont été proposés pour l'étude du stress psychosocial. Les résultats nous révèlent que ces différences dans les réponses de stress entre les femmes et les hommes sont influencées par la variation des hormones sexuelles et le genre du comité d'évaluation. La considération de l'importance des phases du cycle menstruel de la réponse de stress des femmes nous a fait poursuivre, dans une seconde étude, notre questionnement concernant son effet sur l'association entre les réponses physiologiques et affectives du stress. Suite à un stress d'ordre psychosocial, les résultats pointent vers un effet significatif des phases du cycle menstruel sur l'association entre la réponse affective de stress et la réponse endocrine du stress (cortisol). À notre connaissance, il s'agit de la première démonstration de l'effet modulateur du cycle menstruel sur l'association entre les réponses affectives et endocrines du stress. Dans notre dernière étude, nous avons étudié les effets des phases du cycle menstruel sur les réponses physiologiques, affectives et neurales durant un stress psychosocial. Confirmant les résultats de la seconde étude, ils incluent à présent les aspects neuronaux de la réponse de stress, démontrant que les phases du cycle menstruel influence significativement l'association entre les aspects physiologiques et neuronaux du stress psychosocial. Cette thèse se termine par une discussion quant à la pertinence de ces résultats pour notre compréhension des réponses de stress psychosocial chez la femme et l'homme, ainsi que des hypothèses explicatives de l'association différentielle entre les aspects affectifs et physiologiques de la réponse de stress durant les phases du cycle menstruel. Les limites de la présente étude accompagnées de recherches futures sont aussi indiquées.
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34

Mccagh, Jane Teresa. "Social cognition in epilepsy." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2009. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/5954/.

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Some of the psychological problems associated with epilepsy have their origins in the ability of people with epilepsy (PWE) to engage in meaningful and appropriate social interactions. PWE often report difficulties in social settings, yet there is a paucity of research investigating the socio-cognitive skills of this group. This thesis aimed to investigate these skills and relate them to the patient's perceived impact of epilepsy on their social competence. An additional objective was to see whether studying social cognition in focal epilepsy might provide some insight into the organic basis of social cognitive abilities in the normal population. The thesis consists of four separate studies which aimed to investigate social cognition and social functioning in patients with focal epilepsy. With this in mind, a test battery assessing a range of skills linked to social cognition was administered to a cross section of experimental groups (N=95). These included patients with seizure foci in the right frontal lobe (RF), left frontal lobe (LF), right temporal lobe (RT), left temporal lobe (LT) and a group with idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE). A normal control group (NC) and a frontal head injured (FHI) group with no epilepsy were also recruited for the study. In Studies 1 and 2 theory of mind (ToM) deficits were apparent in people with RF and LT epilepsy. These groups demonstrated impairment in the appreciation of false belief and deception at first and second order levels of intentionality. They also exhibited deficits in the appreciation of pragmatic language when attempting to infer the meaning underlying hints given by story characters. These impairments were in part attributable to deficits in narrative memory in the LT group. In Study 3 embedding problems within a social context significantly facilitated conditional reasoning in the NC, LT and RF groups but not in the other experimental groups. This finding was unexpected and suggests a double dissociation between ToM and social conditional reasoning. Study 4 investigated the extent to which socio-cognitive impairment was associated with the perceived impact of epilepsy on everyday social functioning. No statistically significant relationship between these variables was found, although a significant negative correlation between education level and impact of epilepsy was observed. Taken together the findings suggest that impairment in ToM may be a particular feature of right frontal lobe pathology and that social conditional reasoning and ToM may be functionally dissociated. PWE do not appear to have insight into their social functioning difficulties, which may well reflect underlying pathology. In light of this, future research should obtain objective measures of social competence from `significant others'. This is the only series of studies to date to assess social cognition in people with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) within the same design. It is also the first time that social conditional reasoning in epilepsy has been systematically assessed and represents one of the largest lesion studies within the field of social cognition. It is hoped that some of the test material used in the thesis, may prove to be a useful and inexpensive clinical resource to help identify PWE who are at risk of reduced social competence, and in localising the site of seizure foci in patients during clinical audit, particularly where anterior foci are suspected.
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Karaouzene, Ali. "Construction sociale d'une esthétique artificielle : Berenson, un robot amateur d'art." Thesis, Cergy-Pontoise, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017CERG0903/document.

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Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à la problématique de la construction de l'esthétiquechez les humains. Nous proposons d'utiliser un robot comme modèle pour étudier les briquesde bases qui participent au développement des préférences esthétiques. Nous utilisons le termed'esthétique artificielle (E.A ) pour désigner les préférences du robot.Plusieurs travaux de recherche tentent d'établir des théories de l'esthétique que nous séparons icien deux approches. D'une part, les approches empiriques qui étudientles préférences esthétiques d'un point de vue expérimental. Nous nous intéressons notamment àune branche plus radicale des approches empiriques, nommée la neuroesthétique. Celle-ci postulel'existence de structures cérébrales dédiées à l'appréciation des scènes visuelles en général et de l'art en particulier.D'autre part, les approches sociales qui avancent que les préférences esthétiques se transmettent de générationen génération et se construisent selon l'historique de l'individu et de ses interactions avec les autres.Le contextualisme historique est une branchedes approches sociales qui établit un lien entre le contexte dans lequel une œuvre est observée et son appréciation.Sans remettre en cause l'approche neuroscientifique, nous avons choisi de nous positionner dans une approche sociale et développementaleen utilisant des méthodes expérimentales telles que celles utilisées en esthétique empirique.Nous étudions l'émergence du sens esthétique dans le cadre de la référenciation sociale.On appelle référenciation sociale la capacité à attribuer des valences émotionnelles à des objets a priori neutre.Nous testons nos hypothèses sur robot mobile dans un cadre d'interaction triadique : homme-robot objet.Ceci dans un milieu naturel centré sur des humains non initiés à la robotique.Les humains jouent le rôle d'enseignants (professeur) du robot. Ils ont la tâche de suivre le robot dans son développementet de lui enseigner leurs préférences pour lui permettre de développer son propre "goût".Nous avons choisi de mener nos expériences dans des milieux dominés par l'esthétique comme les musées ou les galeries d'art.Toutefois, ces expériences peuvent être menées en tout lieu où des humains et des objets seraient disponibles.Notre robot, nommé Berenson en référence à un célèbre historien de l'art du 19ème siècle, est un outilpour comprendre d'une part comment s'installent des interactions sociales et comment les humainsprêtent des intentions aux machines, et d'autres part il permet d'étudier les briques minimalesd'intelligence artificielle à mettre en place pour construire une esthétique artificielle
In this thesis we propose a robot as tool to study minimal bricks that helps human develop their aesthetic preferences. We refer to the robot preference using the term Artificial Esthetics (A.E).Several research work tries to establish a unified theory of esthetics. We divide them into two approaches. In one side, the empirical approaches which study esthetic preferences in an experimental manner. We mainly discuss the more radical branch of those approaches named "Neuroesthetic". Neuroesthetic advocates the existence of neural structures dedicated to visual scene preference and particularly to art appreciation. In another side, the social approaches which advocate that esthetic preferences are transmitted generation after generation, and they are built according to the individual historic and his interaction with others. Historical contextualism is a branch of the social approaches of art that draws a link between the appreciation of an artwork and the context where the artwork is observed.Without rejecting the neuroscientific approach, we choose a social and developmental way to study artificial esthetic using experimental methods from the empirical esthetic. We study the esthetic preferences development in the social referencing framework. Social referencing is the ability to attribute emotional values to à priori neutral objects. We test our hypothesis on a mobile robot in a triadic interaction : human-robot-object. This in a natural human centered environment. Humans play the role of the teachers. They have to fololow the robot in his development and teach it their preferences in order to help it develop its own "taste".We chose to conduct our experiment in places dominated by art and esthetics like museums and art galleries, however, this kind of experiment can take place anyway where human and objects are present.We named our robot Berenson in reference to a famous art historian of the 19th century. Berenson is a tool to understand how human project intentions into machines in one hand, and in the other hand the robot helps scientist build and understand minimal artificial intelligence bricks to build an artificial esthetic
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Wong, Cara L. "The role of the anterior temporal lobe in social cognition : an investigation using non-invasive brain stimulation." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2011. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28841.

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Recent investigation of the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) has lead to different theoretical branches of its putative functions, which in some part have developed independently of one another. The main bodies of evidence have implicated the ATL as a domain-general semantic hub, whilst other evidence points to a more specific role in social-emotional or 'person­related' processing. A third but less substantial body of evidence, suggests that the ATL underlies processing of unique entities. A problem with the existing literature implicating the A TL in social and emotional processing is that the region is often ignored in favour of the frontal lobe and amygdala. Further, there is a paucity of studies attempting to directly compare the three accounts. Primarily, research of the A TL has been based on lesion studies and from clinical populations such as semantic dementia or temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Although important, this neuropsychological evidence has a number of confounds. Therefore techniques such as functional neuroimaging on healthy participants and the relatively novel use of non-invasive brain stimulation, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), may be more useful to isolate specific variables that can discriminate between these different theories. TMS has the further benefit of elucidating causal relationships between structure and function. The general aim of this thesis was to explore the function of the ATL using low frequency repetitive (r)TMS. A second aim was to investigate whether a specific social processing role could be dissociated from a general semantic function, and thirdly if evidence for functional sub-regions, namely laterality differences, could be found within the ATL. The literature review revealed the A TL to be involved in several 'social' measures which formed the focusof the empirical chapters. These included stereotypes (Chapter 2 and 3), social conceptual knowledge (Chapter 4) and theory of mind (Chapter 5). In all studies, healthy university students were randomly allocated into a left ATL (LATL), a right ATL (RATL), or a control stimulation group (either sham or control site [Cz]), and performed tasks before and after receiving 15 minutes of low frequency rTMS. The results from Chapters 2 and 3 showed that stimulation of the LA TL and RA TL via rTMS significantly reduced D-scores on two different implicit association tests (lA T) measuring racial and gender stereotypes. In contrast, no changes were seen in the control stimulation groups. Further, no changes were found on Black-White IAT using facial stimuli; or control tasks including a non-social [AT developed by the author, and executive function measures. Chapter 4, investigated if rTMS could affect performance on a social versus non-social concept task (Zahn, et al., 2009). However, the results showed that social conceptual knowledge could not be dissociated from non-social concepts. An overall change in reaction time across all concepts was found after stimulation to the LATL only. Chapter 5 examined whether inhibition of the ATL could affect performance in a well-known theory of mind task - the Mind in the Eyes test (Baron-Cohen, Wheelright, Hill, Raste & Plumb, 2001). ln contrast to the hypotheses, no significant changes were found from pre to post stimulation for any stimulation group. The results provide strong evidence that the ATL is involved in stereotypes and conceptual knowledge, but not in theory of mind. Although some of the results offered evidence that the A TL is more involved in social processing, in general, no dissociation was found. The results suggested that rTMS enhanced performance as it led to decreased reaction times in the significant studies without affecting accuracy. The results from the current thesis were integrated with the wider literature to investigate whether there was support for onetheoretical account over another, or if they suggest functional sub-regions within the ATL. The overall balance of evidence indicates that the LA TL may be more involved in tasks that require language or lexical discrimination, however, no consistent effects were found for a specific role in the RA TL. Although knowledge may be represented asymmetrically, TMS may not be robust enough to dissociate functions due to hemispheric compensation. A holistic integration of the theories is feasible, in that the ATL could process domain-general semantic knowledge but with a bias towards social information. Or alternatively, it could have a greater intensity of signal for information that is important or salient. Thus, it may be the importance of social/emotional information that gives it priority of processing in the A TL not an inherent property of the structure itself.
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37

Aan, het Rot Marije. "Serotonin, bright light, and the regulation of human social interaction and mood." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=111846.

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The three studies described in this Doctoral Thesis pertain to the neurotransmitter serotonin, the environmental factor light, and their role in the regulation of human mood as well as behavioural and perceptual aspects of daily social interaction. Participants were healthy at the time of the study but considered at risk for mood disorders in the future. In Study 1, the serotonin system was manipulated by administering tryptophan. This resulted in a decrease in quarrelsome behaviours, an increase in agreeable behaviours, and improved mood. Changes in perceptions of others were also seen. In Study 2, acute tryptophan depletion was used in conjunction with dim or bright light exposure during test days. A worsening of mood was seen under dim but not bright light conditions, which suggests that bright light was able to regulate mood by interacting with the brain serotonin system. In Study 3, this idea was explored further by investigating the links between light exposure levels and mood, as well as social behaviours and social perceptions, in everyday life. Higher levels of natural bright light exposure were associated with less quarrelsomeness, more agreeableness, and better mood. In conclusion, serotonin appears to mediate aspects of human social interaction that have been linked to a variety of mental and physical health issues. Bright light may regulate mood in part by altering the activity of the brain serotonin system. An increase in bright light exposure may have effects on mood and social interaction similar to a pharmacological manipulation of the brain serotonin system. The findings of the three studies presented here may have implications for the development of a nonpharmacological approach to the prevention of mental as well as physical disease. The various processes underlying factors that modulate social inclusion and acceptance deserve more attention in psychiatry and human neuroscience.
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Billeck, Jillian L. "Investigation of Empathy-like Behavior in Social Housing." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1464882405.

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39

To, Allisen. "Evidence-based Probiotic Intervention for Behavioral and Social Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1343.

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a heterogeneous neurological condition characterized by repetitive and restrictive behaviors and social communication deficits. ASD diagnoses are at a record high, at approximately 1 in 59 children according to the US Center for Disease Control. Currently, there are no available interventions that effectively treat the core symptoms of ASD. All pharmaceutical options address comorbid side effects of ASD but not core deficits and are particularly associated with negative side effects. Additionally, there are economic and geographic barriers that can prevent families of individuals with ASD from seeking or receiving effective interventions. Many of the available interventions are extremely costly, time-consuming, and age dependent. These factors, as well as others, have led to an increase in families independently utilizing complementary and alternative interventions. Due to the large amount of misinformation available on the Internet, families have become more susceptible to trying alternative forms of interventions that have not been scientifically proven as effective, and in some cases, are significantly detrimental. Thus, the need for accessible and inexpensive evidence-based nonpharmaceutical interventions is critical and must be addressed. Fortunately, recent groundbreaking research has discovered two strains of probiotics, Bacteroides fragilis and Lactobacillus reuteri, that have been shown to ameliorate behavioral and social deficits respectively, in validated ASD mouse models in a non-age-dependent manner. Probiotic intervention with a combination of these specific strains would effectively target both repetitive behaviors and social deficits, core ASD symptoms, and provide families with an accessible and inexpensive form of intervention. The mechanisms underlying the efficacy of these probiotics are thought to be associated with the gastrointestinal (GI) system and the oxytocin pathway. This study seeks to examine the necessity of accessible nonpharmaceutical interventions and to provide an effective intervention that is neither expensive or age dependent. This study also aims to provide greater insight into the pathways and systems in which these probiotics operate.
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40

Rogers-Carter, Morgan M. "TheRole of the Insular Cortex in Rodent Social Affective Behavior:." Thesis, Boston College, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108375.

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Thesis advisor: John P. Christianson
In social species, animals must detect, evaluate and respond to the states of other individuals in their group. A constellation of gestures, vocalizations, and chemosignals enable animals to convey affect and arousal to others in nuanced, multisensory ways. Observers integrate such social information with environmental cues and internal physiology to general social behavioral responses via a process called social decision-making. The mechanisms and anatomical correlates of social decision-making, particularly those that allow behavioral responses to others’ emotional states, are not fully known. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to broaden the anatomical understanding of social decision-making by investigating the role of the insular cortex in social behaviors that depend upon others’ emotional state. Using a novel behavioral paradigm, I present causal evidence that implicates the insular cortex and its projections to the nucleus accumbens in social affective behavior. These findings are consistent with evidence from the literature that suggests insular cortex is positioned to convey sensory cues to social brain structures to produce flexible and appropriate behavioral responses to social affective cues
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology
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41

Beitmen, Logan R. "Neuroscience and Hindu Aesthetics: A Critical Analysis of V.S. Ramachandran’s “Science of Art”." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1198.

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Neuroaesthetics is the study of the brain’s response to artistic stimuli. The neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran contends that art is primarily “caricature” or “exaggeration.” Exaggerated forms hyperactivate neurons in viewers’ brains, which in turn produce specific, “universal” responses. Ramachandran identifies a precursor for his theory in the concept of rasa (literally “juice”) from classical Hindu aesthetics, which he associates with “exaggeration.” The canonical Sanskrit texts of Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra and Abhinavagupta’s Abhinavabharati, however, do not support Ramachandran’s conclusions. They present audiences as dynamic co-creators, not passive recipients. I believe we could more accurately model the neurology of Hindu aesthetic experiences if we took indigenous rasa theory more seriously as qualitative data that could inform future research.
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42

Novick, Andrew Michael. "Long-term consequences of adolescent social defeat on cognition and prefrontal cortex dopamine function." Thesis, University of South Dakota, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3714207.

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Individuals who are victimized by bullying during adolescence demonstrate an increased incidence of psychiatric disorders both acutely and later in life. Many of these disorders are characterized by deficits in complex cognitive functions that are mediated by the mesocortical dopamine system. The substantial maturation of the mesocortical dopamine system during adolescence may render it particularly vulnerable to insult from psychosocial stressors such as bullying. Using a rodent model of adolescent social defeat to replicate the imbalance of power inherent in teenage bullying, it was previously demonstrated that defeated rats exhibit various behavioral and neurochemical indications of mesocortical dopamine hypofunction in adulthood. The experimental chapters of this dissertation aim to further understand the consequences of victimization stress during adolescence by 1) evaluating the effects of adolescent social defeat on dopamine dependent cognitive processes and 2) investigating the potential mechanisms by which adolescent social defeat results in mesocortical dopamine hypofunction. Adult rats defeated in adolescence and their controls were initially tested on two separate tasks of working memory known to be dependent on mesocortical dopamine activity, the delayed alternating T-maze task and the delayed win-shift task. Results found a direct link between adolescent social defeat and adult working memory deficits, with previously defeated rats demonstrating impaired performance in the maintenance and utilization of information following delays of 90 seconds and 5 minutes on the T-maze and win-shift tasks respectively. In a separate experiment, quantitative autoradiography revealed increased expression of the dopamine transporter (DAT) in the infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of adult rats defeated in adolescence. Further investigation of mPFC DAT function utilizing in vivo chronoamperometry demonstrated that previously defeated rats exhibit decreased dopamine accumulation in response to pharmacological DAT inhibition, indicating enhanced DAT function that may increase clearance of dopamine in the mPFC. Combined, these results suggest that increased functional expression of DAT in the mPFC following adolescent social defeat leads to enhanced clearance of dopamine, contributing to deficits in mPFC dopamine activity and associated cognitive processes. Having identified a putative mechanism by which adolescent social defeat causes mesocortical dopamine hypofunction, the results of these experiments can assist in directing the clinical application of novel and existing pharmacotherapies to counteract the deleterious effects of adolescent stress.

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43

Durkin, John. "Psychological growth following adversity : the role of social support." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13099/.

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The thesis begins with a review of the trauma literature as it relates to fire and rescue work and the attention given to the negative psychological consequences of involvement in such work. Clinical authorities warn of the psychological harm caused by exposure to traumatic incidents despite the recognition that psychological growth often follows adversity. To address this, firefighters were used in a series of studies to investigate the role of social support in facilitating growth. A philosophical overview of current understandings of trauma and growth was made along with the methodology chosen to pursue this investigation. The first empirical chapter is a test of the relation of growth to two different philosophical types of well-being. It found growth to be related to eudaimonic change, rather than hedonic change. A comprehensive review of the literature on social support and growth then found mixed findings for the association of social support and growth but no strong evidence of a causal relation. Four empirical chapters follow that examine the relations between different types of social support and growth in firefighters. The final empirical chapter is a longitudinal study of social support and growth in firefighters based on the findings of earlier cross-sectional studies. Overall, findings were mixed and the role that social support plays in the facilitation of growth remains unclear. A critical realist perspective was taken at the end of the thesis that raises philosophical concerns about clinical understandings of trauma, its treatment and reliance upon a medical framework for explaining psychological change. The findings offer directions in which future research may progress to establish the role of social support in the facilitation of growth following adversity.
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Theriault, Jordan Eugene. "Morality as a Scaffold for Social Prediction." Thesis, Boston College, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107624.

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Thesis advisor: Liane L. Young
Thesis advisor: Elizabeth A. Kensinger
Theory of mind refers to the process of representing others’ mental states. This process consistently elicits activity in a network of brain regions: the theory of mind network (ToMN). Typically, theory of mind has been understood in terms of content, i.e. representing the semantic content of someone’s beliefs. However, recent work has proposed that ToMN activity could be better understood in the context of social prediction; or, more specifically, prediction error—the difference between observed and predicted information. Social predictions can be represented in multiple forms—e.g. dispositional predictions about who a person is, prescriptive norms about what people should do, and descriptive norms about what people frequently do. Part 1 examined the relationship between social prediction error and ToMN activity, finding that the activity in the ToMN was related to both dispositional, and prescriptive predictions. Part 2 examined the semantic content represented by moral claims. Prior work has suggested that morals are generally represented and understood as objective, i.e. akin to facts. Instead, we found that moral claims are represented as far more social than prior work had anticipated, eliciting a great deal of activity across the ToMN. Part 3 examined the relationship between ToMN activity and metaethical status, i.e. the extent that morals were perceived as objective or subjective. Objective moral claims elicited less ToMN activity, whereas subjective moral claimed elicited more. We argue that this relationship is best understood in the context of prediction, where objective moral claims represent strong social priors about what most people will believe. Finally, I expand on this finding and argue that a theoretical approach incorporating social prediction has serious implications for morality, or more specifically, for the motivations underlying normative compliance. People may be compelled to observe moral rules because doing so maintains a predictable social environment
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology
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Basso, Frédéric. "L'incorporation des food imitating products : la métaphore alimentaire des produits d'hygiène entre marketing, santé publique et neurosciences sociales." Rennes 1, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011REN1G018.

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Les Food Imitating Products (FIP) sont des produits d’hygiène corporelle ou domestique qui présentent des attributs alimentaires dans le but d’en enrichir l’expérience de consommation. Cette logique commerciale est également présentée comme une cause potentielle d’ingestions accidentelles en raison de la confusion qu’elle génèrerait dans l’esprit du consommateur. Nous considérons que les FIP reposent sur l’emploi d’une métaphore alimentaire non verbale qui consiste, selon la théorie de la métaphore conceptuelle, à mettre en rapport l’expérience de consommation des produits d’hygiène avec celle de l’aliment. Afin d’examiner si cette métaphore est en mesure de conduire à un défaut de catégorisation du consommateur, nous avons, dans un premier temps, mené une étude de terrain dans un centre antipoison. Nous avons pu apprécier, à partir des échanges téléphoniques enregistrés entre patients et médecins, que l’ingestion accidentelle d’un produit d’hygiène par un consommateur adulte pouvait être le résultat de la similarité créée entre un produit d’hygiène et un aliment par l’emploi d’une métaphore alimentaire non verbale à des fins commerciales. Pour contrôler les facteurs contextuels et personnels néanmoins susceptibles d’influencer la similarité perçue entre un produit d’hygiène et un aliment, nous avons conduit, dans un deuxième temps, une expérimentation en imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle. Au regard de nos résultats de neuro-imagerie, les sujets ont généré des inférences gustatives à la vue d’un FIP, ce qui confirme, selon l’approche modale de la catégorisation, que des sujets adultes peuvent implicitement catégoriser un produit d’hygiène en aliment
Food Imitating Products (FIP) are household cleaners and personal care products that exhibit food attributes in order to enrich their consumption experience. Such a marketing logic can also be considered a potential source of consumers unintentional poisonings. In order to understand the rationale behind this marketing logic, we consider FIPs as non verbal food metaphors. According to the conceptual metaphor theory, the metaphor maps from the source domain (food) to the target domain (cleaners) in order to enlighten a (consumption) experience domain with another. We explore if the use of food metaphor could lead to a miscategorization. For this purpose, we conducted a qualitative analysis of household cleaners or personal care products related phone calls made to a poison control centre. It appears that unintentional home self-poisoning following the accidental ingestion of a chemical product by a healthy adult can result from the perceived similarity created by the commercial use of food metaphor. To control for contextual and personal factors that may influence the perceived similarity between household cleaners or personal care products and food, we performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. In light of our neuroimaging results, it appears that the visual processing of FIPs lead to taste inferences, confirming, in the modal approach of categorization, that adult subjects can implicitly categorize a personal care product as food
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46

Geraci, Gianni G. "The relationship between frontal lobe functioning, trait displaced aggression and crime." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1595766.

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Previous literature indicates that slower electroencephalography (EEG) waves and hemispheric EEG asymmetry in frontal lobe regions (which are indicators of deficits in frontal lobe functioning) have been associated with violence and crime in habitually aggressive offenders. The current project is the first to investigate the relationship between frontal lobe functioning (EEG slow wave activity and asymmetry), trait displaced aggression (TDA), and crime. Results showed that TDA moderated the effect of frontal lobe asymmetry on violent crime. Specifically, there is a significant positive relationship between delta asymmetry and violent crime for those with high or mean levels of TDA but delta asymmetry did not impact crime for individuals low in TDA. Implications of this research for reducing violent crime will be discussed.

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Dhaliwal, Ranjit. "Examining social problem solving programmes with mentally disordered and intellectually disabled offenders in secure hospital settings." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47343/.

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This thesis examines the effectiveness of social problem solving programmes and the efficacy of an assessment tool designed for mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) and intellectually disabled (ID) offenders in secure hospital settings. Firstly, a systematic review concluded that all studies reported benefits of the social problem solving programmes with MDOs. Several studies also identified that shorter revised programmes had lower drop-out rates, and were more cost-effective. Methodological limitations were identified and suggested further research is needed. Secondly, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was utilised to explore the meanings ID offenders in a secure hospital attribute to their experience of the Thinking Skills Offender Programme (TSOP). Five themes emerged and participants’ conveyed a sense of hope in relation to their treatment, discussed challenges they faced, identified the impact the TSOP had on factors contributing to their offending behaviour, and wanted to share their experiences with a wider audience. Further research to develop effective programmes for ID offenders is discussed. Thirdly, an assessment and treatment of an adult male violent offender with ID and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who undertook the TSOP in a medium secure unit is examined. The findings highlighted the difficulties in assessing and treating such patients using conventional methods and the need for standardised assessments and interventions for this population is discussed. Finally, the reliability and validity of the Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI) is examined with MDOs and ID offenders. Its clinical utility in inpatients settings and limitations are also discussed. This thesis has highlighted the benefits of social problem solving programmes with MDOs and ID offenders, difficulties of conducting research with this population, and the need for further rigorous research into assessments and interventions.
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Kohli, Shivali. "The impact of oxytocin and GlyT1 inhibitors on social behaviour." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51066/.

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Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder characterised by various symptoms which fall into three categories of positive, negative and cognitive. In particular, negative symptoms are poorly treated by current medications although several adjunctive therapies are under investigation including Glycine Transporter (GlyT1) inhibitors and neuropeptides such as oxytocin. Despite accumulating preclinical and clinical evidence that such compounds can influence social behaviour and improve negative symptoms in patients, there is little information as to the precise mechanisms by which they work. Therefore, the aims of this thesis were to ultimately determine some of the key regions and potential signalling pathways activated following administration of these compounds in Lister-hooded rats. Firstly, a functional map of GlyT1 inhibitor RO4993850, an analogue to Bitopertin, identified the selective activation of neurons within the rostral and caudal prefrontal cortex (PFC), suggesting potential NMDA receptor activation in brain areas involved in motivation and goal-directed behaviour. This was further assessed in a novel ‘dual-hit’ neonatal-PCP isolation-rearing rodent model for schizophrenia which was shown herein to induce locomotor hyperactivity and social deficits including reduced social interaction (an index for negative symptoms) and increased communication (as assessed by ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs)). Interestingly neonatal-PCP isolation-reared rats emitted more pro-social 50 kHz USVs which were also longer in duration and had a greater change in call bandwidth compared to controls. Neonatal-PCP isolation-rearing was also shown to selectively decrease parvalbumin expression (a calcium binding protein present in GABAergic interneurons) in the hippocampus but not in the rostral PFC sub-regions assessed, producing similar changes to other rodent models. Microdialysis studies however revealed no change to basal PFC and striatal dopamine levels in these rats. Chronic treatment with the GlyT1 inhibitor RO4993850 improved social deficits in the social interaction test and altered both USV emissions and call characteristics but showed no effect on locomotor hyperactivity, parvalbumin expression in either the PFC or hippocampus, nor dopamine overflow in the PFC or striatum. Finally, an established dose of the neuropeptide oxytocin which did not influence core body temperature, was shown to attenuate PCP-induced hyperactivity, increase pro-social behaviour and selectively enhance dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in group-housed Lister-hooded rats. Thereby providing supporting evidence for regionally-specific oxytocin-dopaminergic interactions within the mesocorticolimbic circuits responsible for regulating associative and rewarding behaviour. There are therefore several potential mechanisms by which both GlyT1 inhibitors and oxytocin can influence social behaviour, most likely via activation of key brain loci involved in motivation. Although further work is required, results herein indicate the potential of GlyT1 inhibitors and oxytocin as adjunctive therapies to treat predominant negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
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Sawicki, Caroline. "Repeated Social Defeat Stress Promotes Reactive Brain Endothelium and Microglia-Dependent Pain Sensitivity." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586338402925441.

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50

Egic, Milica. "Social anxiety disorder : SSRI vs. placebo." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för biovetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-20230.

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Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by fear and avoidance of social interactions and situations in which an individual is being the focus of attention. This current thesis aims to examine the efficacy of pharmacological treatment, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in individuals with a generalized social anxiety disorder (gSAD) in comparison with placebo (no active medication). In this systematic review, Scopus and Web of Science were searched for relevant research regarding the efficacy of the SSRI medication (paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine and escitalopram) in comparison with placebo. Sixteen articles were included in this analysis. Results demonstrated that SSRI medication has greater efficacy in comparison with placebo both in short- and long-term time, prevent relapse in the long-term treatment of SAD and had a beneficial effect on different areas of individuals life's such as work, performance, romantic relationships etc.
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