What are the working mechanisms of emotion and social cognition? - Chapter 11

How are emotion and social cognition connected to each other?

There is a lot of supporting evidence for the idea that cognition and emotion are two specific, functionally different types of information processing, that do, however, interact to a great extent. Emotion is a precondition for motivation.

What are social interactions?

Social situations are complex, dynamic, and they involve time pressure. Social cognition is a term used to refer to all mental processes that underlie social interactions (Brothers, 1990). All mental processes involved in social cognition can be divided in three stages: perception (involves the focusing of attention on and the perception of relevant information, including: non-verbal social signals, verbal social signals, and contextual information), interpretation (including the allocation of meaning to social schemas, the formation of social concepts, 'mentalising', empathy, imitation and simulation, and social, causal attributions), and reaction ( response selection and implementation of social behaviour).

What are emotions?

An emotion is both a physical and mental state that is related to feelings, thoughts and behavior. A distinction can be made between emotions (which refer purely to the physical reactions that all mammals have) and feelings (the human subjective experience of emotions). In this sense, an emotion is a brain function that detects important information and prepares the body to respond with the highest chance of survival (such as a flight response).

How can emotions be classified?

Emotions can be classified on different axes, such as positive versus negative, 'approach' (extraversion) versus 'withdrawal' (introversion), and high intensity versus low intensity. A widely used distinction is the difference between the primary and secondary emotions. The six primary emotions include happiness, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise. The underlying neural circuit for these emotions is mainly formed by the subcortical structures. A certain form of specialization can be seen within this: the amygdala is most strongly involved in fear, the cingulate gyrus in sadness and anger, the insula in disgust, and the basal ganglia in happiness (Phan, Wager, Taylor & Liberzon, 2002). All primary emotions are universally recognized in the facial expressions (Ekman, 1999). The secondary emotions (social or moral) regulate behavior in general in order to prevent social exclusion and to facilitate adaptation to the group. For example, feelings of guilt, shame, jealousy, disapproval, and contempt.

The functions of emotions

Emotions increase our chance of survival by preparing our bodies for a flight-or-fight reaction. The amygdala has an important in processing threatening external stimuli. According to LeDoux's two-route model (1996), the threatening information can be processed via two routes; both end in the amygdala that triggers the physiological reactions:

• The fast route: the global information is sent directly from the thalamus (a “central distribution station”) to the amygdala.

• The slow route: the global information from the thalamus first passes through the frontal cortex so that the information can be specified. Then the information is sent to the amygdala. Due to the fact that the specification of information is done via the frontal cortex and this cortex has strong connections with the hippocampus, it is also possible to learn from this threatening situation. The amygdala also has strong connections with the hippocampus: this connection explains why emotional events are often better remembered than non-emotional events.

The emotion is mainly expressed in the facial expression, but also the body posture, gestures, voice intonation, and olfactory stimuli such as pheromones convey emotional information.

The influence of emotions on behavior

An emotion automatically triggers a physical response (via the fast route): in this way our behavior is unconsciously influenced by our emotions. The functional importance of the primary emotions is self-evident (the goal is survival), but for secondary emotions, the functionality of the physical reactions is not so clear. According to Damasio's (1994) somatic marker theory, the physical reactions in a complex and unclear situation lead to a 'gut feeling' (intuition) with which you can make decisions. A test that analyses how physical responses are used to guide decisions is the Iowa Gambling Task. This objective task also shows that the somatic markers (the physiological internal processes) are interpreted as warnings (Damasio's 'gut feeling'), which means that certain options are avoided. In this task, the patient learns that certain choices have negative consequences. Patients with amygdala damage do not receive any physiological reactions and therefore no gut feeling. It has also been found that patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) do generate the somatic stamps, but that they can only do this after making a choice and not before. From this it can be concluded that not only the amygdala, but also the VMPFC is related to the generation of emotional physiological responses (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio & Lee, 1999).

How are emotions regulated?

There is an (conscious, active) intentional and an (unconscious, passive) unintentional form of emotion regulation. Intentional regulation, especially the regulation mechanic-sective reassessment (reappraisal and affective suppression) are applied. In affective reappraisal, the patient interprets the situation more positively. The reappraisal, unlike the suppression, takes place before the emotional response which can change the emotion process, which explains why the revaluation is often a more effective emotion regulation method. Prefrontal cortex activation is increased, and activation of subcortical areas such as the amygdala is reduced. 

Self-reflection

Self-reflection and self-awareness make it possible to actively seek out situations in which we feel good and avoid situations in which we feel bad. Both are related to activation in the VMPFC. Patients with damage in the VMPFC often have fewer self-aware emotions (such as shame after inappropriate behavior), difficulty in assessing their own (social) functioning, planning and decision making (Damasio, Tranel & Damasio, 1990).

What is mentalising?

The ability to 'put ourselves in other people's shoes' is called "mentalising." Two different concepts are of importance: mirroring the experiences and feelings of other people on the one hand, and attributing thoughts, intentions, aims, and desires to them (Theory of mind) on the other. 

The mirror system

Internal simulation, or the introduction of affective, motor or perceptual experiences, can help us to understand other people better. With internal simulation we can become happy by looking at someone else who is happy. This link between perception and one's own experiences is made possible in part by the mirror system: a system with a shared representation for perception and action. The mirror system is probably the underlying mechanism for empathy.

Theory of Mind

In "Theory of Mind’ (ToM), the person forms a hypothesis about the thoughts of others by taking their perspective. In a complex mental experience of someone else it is not enough to mirror someone's experiences: abstract and semantic representations are needed to find out the intentions and to understand the situation. Within the ToM there is a ‘first-order belief’ and a ‘second-order belief’.

The first order belief ("Suus thinks that her mother is going to pick her up from school") develops around the third year of life and turns into being able to think about ‘something’. The second order belief ("Mark thinks that the teacher thinks that he hasn't made his homework") Develops around the age of six and turns into thinking about thinking. Often it is difficult to understand a social ‘faux pas’: here someone else's unintended social misstep must be recognized as such and the perpetrator must be recognized to not intend to hurt someone else (Stone, Baron-Cohen & Knight, 1998).

The recognition of a faux-pas situation can only take place from the age of 8. The brain area that is most activated in studies to ToM is the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC): an area known for its involvement in the integration of information. The MPFC becomes active in condemning yourself and in judging someone else. The only person responsible for the ToM includes the parts involved in executive functions (reasoning, cognitive control), language and the reading of affective information based on facial expressions.

Which neurocognitive models of social behavior are known?

The SOCIAL model

The ‘Socio-Cognitive Integration of Abilities’ (SOCIAL) model by Beauchamp and Anderson (2010) states that social skills are mediated by a neural network that is susceptible to environmental factors. The model contains three components. The first component consists of the mediating factors: internal factors (such as personality) and external factors (such as culture) that shape social skills. The internal and external factors interact with the brain. The second component covers all emotion processes and cognitive processes that are related to social behavior. These processes form one strong system that are interconnected at neural and behavioral level. This component can be divided into three categories:

1. Category 1: Attention and executive functioning (such as working memory and inhibition)

2. Category 2: Communication skills (such as the viewing direction and language comprehension)

3. Category 3: Social-emotional functions (such as mentalising (ToM) and empathy)

The second component forms the basis of social competence: the third component. Social competence equals social skills, social adaptation, and social development. It concerns the aim of meeting the requirements of the social environment.

Which emotional impairments can occur?

Due to the fact that social cognition is so broad, the heterogeneity of the disorders is enormous. Often an abrupt or gradual experience in social behavior is most quickly noticed by the environment. A key aspect is that according to the environment, the patient has become more self-centered (a change in character). He / she no longer takes other people into account, and shows no interest in the people around. Their relationships lack reciprocity. The emotion has blunted (which can be referred to as pseudodepression because there is no suffering pressure) and there is virtually no insight into illness. Child-like behavior, Witzelsucht (the tendency to constantly make inappropriate jokes, often at the expense of others) and uninhibited behavior are also frequently reported. In order to classify the disorder as good as possible, the division into stages of the social information processing system is used (perception, interpretation and response).

Disorders that occur within perception

After traumatic brain injury or in the case of Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease or frontotemporal dementia, patients have more difficulty recognizing emotional facial expressions. In patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or schizophrenia, impairments have been found in the recognition of emotions in facial expressions and voice (prosody).

Disorders that occur within interpretation

After observing socially relevant information, this information also has to be interpreted. In the interpretation process, a ToM must be formed by using knowledge from the social schemas (the schemas form a guideline for our social behavior). Some patient groups are less likely to have social schemes, such as patients with ASD: they have difficulty empathizing (Blair, 2003). Patients with various neurological disorders also have more difficulty in forming a ToM.

Disorders that occur in response

One's own behaviour have to be regulated during the reaction. Patients with brain injury often have difficulty understanding the social cues that indicate that they should change their behaviour (such as an angry look). They also frequently experience an inability to stop so that when they are able to absorb the social cues, they cannot inhibit their behavior yet.

Where is social cognition located?

The functions of the amygdala

One of the primary functions of the amygdala (located deep within the temporal lobe) is the automatic screening of information for social and affective relevance, primarily with regard to threats from the environment. The amygdala also plays a major role in forming and storing memories with emotional content. The amygdala is connected to the prefrontal cortex but also provides feedback to the visual areas (making the visual areas more active, for example, if a hazard is noted).

The function of the superior temporal sulcus

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is mainly involved in the interpretation of socially relevant movement information (body posture, viewing direction, targeted movements and changes in facial expressions).

The function of the fusiform gyrus

The fusiform gyrus (in the occipital lobe and underside of the temporal lobe) includes the ability to process faces in detail (both the affective information and the static features for identification): 'fusiform face area'.

The function of the insula

The anterior part of the insula records and organizes internal physiological changes when affective information (both primary and secondary emotions) is perceived and understood.

The function of the striatum

The ventral part of the striatum predicts which reactions will lead to positive consequences. This area is regulated by levels of dopamine.

The function of the cortical mirror systems

The cortical mirror systems (demonstrated through shared neural activity in the parietal, premotor, somatosensory and motor cortex) are involved in mirroring the experiences of others in order to be able to imagine the experience of others.

The function of the prefrontal cortex

The amygdala and the striatum send their information to the VMPFC and the medial orbitofrontal cortex: both areas are continuously involved in updating the affective values ​​in variable situations. This emotion regulation takes place by always learning the associations between reactions and the affective consequences. Integrating complex information is also one of the tasks of the PFC (as mentioned earlier, the MPFC is involved in putting yourself in someone else's shoes).

The function of the cingulate gyrus

The cingulate gyrus is mainly involved in ‘conflict monitoring’, ‘reinforcement’ processes and ‘error detection’. For this reason, response selection and decision-making behavior are often regulated by the gyrus cinguli.