Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Observing Virtual Social Interactions

Abstract

The ability to gauge social interactions is crucial in the assessment of others' intentions. Factors such as facial expressions and body language affect our decisions in personal and professional life alike (1). These "friend or foe" judgements are often based on first impressions, which in turn may affect our decisions to "approach or avoid". Previous studies investigating the neural correlates of social cognition tended to use static facial stimuli (2). Here, we illustrate an experimental design in which whole-body animated characters were used in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings. Fifteen participants were presented with short movie-clips of guest-host interactions in a business setting, while fMRI data were recorded; at the end of each movie, participants also provided ratings of the host behaviour. This design mimics more closely real-life situations, and hence may contribute to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of social interactions in healthy behaviour, and to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in social behaviour in such clinical conditions as social anxiety and autism (3).

From personal fear to mass panic: The neurological basis of crowd perception

“…Note that the majority of studies into the perception of emotional body language or emotional social interactions find amygdala activation [Dolcos et al, 2012;Grezes et al, 2007;Kujala et al, 2012;Pichon et al, 2008;Sinke et al, 2010;Sung et al, 2011;Tavares et al, 2008]. A possible explanation for the lack of amygdala activation in the current study pertains to the fact that attention was devoted to the dot-detection task the participants performed.…”

“…In fact, subtle movement indicators are enough to gauge whether an interaction between two people is a tease or a threat [Sinke et al, ]. Previous fMRI studies assessed the underlying neural correlates of these social interactions using stimuli of two humans facing each other [Kujala et al, ], inviting versus avoiding interactions [Dolcos et al, ; Sung et al, ] and interacting versus noninteracting (point‐light or human) figures [Centelles et al, ; Iacoboni et al, ; Pierno et al, ]. These studies indicate that action [extrastriate body area (EBA), hMT+/V5, fusiform gyrus (FG), premotor cortex (PM), precuneus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior temporal sulcus (STS)] and emotion processing networks [amygdala (AMG), insula, ACC] play a role in the processing of natural social interactions.…”

Movies and narratives as naturalistic stimuli in neuroimaging

“…Inference of the intention vs. consequences of protagonist actions showed involvement of the TPJ, visual areas, MPFC, IFG, and angular gyrus ( Mason and Just, 2011 ). Observing virtual characters in host–guest business interactions where the subject was to subsequently judge whether the interactions had been between “friends” or “foes” activated the STS, lateral and medial prefrontal (MPFC) areas, and the amygdala ( Sung et al, 2011 ). In another study, clips from live-action movies activated the MPFC more strongly than cartoons, perhaps through stronger mentalization ( Han et al, 2005 ).…”

Neural correlates of emotion–cognition interactions: A review of evidence from brain imaging investigations

“…Studies investigating the neural correlates of social cognition usually tended to use facial stimuli (e.g., Todorov, 2008 ). However, there are clear advantages to using also whole-body stimuli, as they can be recognised as reliably as facial expressions, can direct attention to a person's actions, and overall are more ecologically valid ( de Gelder, 2009 Sung et al, 2011 ). Using emotion manipulations with dynamic whole-body stimuli that mimic more closely real-life situations may contribute not only to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of social interactions in healthy behaviour, but also to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in social behaviour in such clinical conditions as social anxiety and autism ( Pelphrey & Morris, 2006 ).…”