Hippocampal contributions to the processing of social emotions

Abstract

Inducing and experiencing emotions about others’ mental and physical circumstances is thought to involve self-relevant processing and personal memories of similar experiences. The hippocampus is important for self-referential processing during recall and prospection; however, its contributions during social emotions have not been systematically investigated. We use event-related averaging and Granger causal connectivity mapping to investigate hippocampal contributions during the processing of varieties of admiration and compassion pertaining to protagonists’ mental versus physical circumstances (admiration for virtue, AV, versus for skill; compassion for social/psychological pain, CSP, versus for physical pain). Data were collected using a multistep emotion induction paradigm that included psychosocial interviews, BOLD fMRI and simultaneous psychophysiological recording. Given that mnemonic demands were equivalent among conditions, we tested whether: (1) the hippocampi would be recruited more strongly and for a longer duration during the processing of AV and CSP; (2) connectivity between the hippocampi and cortical systems involved in visceral somatosensation/emotional feeling, social cognitive, and self-related processing would be more extensive during AV and CSP. Results elucidate the hippocampus’ facilitative role in inducing and sustaining appropriate emotional reactions, the importance of self-related processing during social emotions, and corroborate the conception that varieties of emotional processing pertaining to others’ mental and physical situations engage at least partially distinct neural mechanisms.

Influence of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric Acid-Use and Gamma-Hydroxybutyric Acid-Induced Coma on Affect and the Affective Network

“…During performance of this task, a matching process takes place between external stimuli and internal task goal representations stored in the hippocampus [35][36][37]. As a result, hippocampal activity tends to increase in order to activate task goal representations and allocate attention to high emotional salient stimuli that will enable an appropriate behavioral response [37,38]. However here, decreased hippocampal activity was instead observed in the GHB-Coma group.…”

“…While performing a matching task of negative emotions of fear and anger, the effect of multiple GHB-induced comas was further associated with decreased hippocampal activity, and increased left hippocampal functional connectivity with the left FG and a cluster in the right TPOjunction. During performance of this task, a matching process takes place between external stimuli and internal task goal representations stored in the hippocampus [35][36][37]. As a result, hippocampal activity tends to increase in order to activate task goal representations and allocate attention to high emotional salient stimuli that will enable an appropriate behavioral response [37,38].…”

1741 – Social cognition in a case of amnesia with neurodevelopmental mechanisms

“…Furthermore, it has been proposed that the function of the hippocampus extends beyond the mnemonic domain, to support other cognitive areas (such as perception, problem solving) via relational binding and comparison (Abu-Akel and Shamay-Tsoory, 2011;Olsen et al, 2012). Some authors hypothesized that the hippocampal formation may play a role in the experience of emotions about others' mental states (Immordino-Yang and Singh, 2013). Negative correlations were found in a study between vocally expressed nervousness and regional cerebral blood flow in the right hippocampus (Laukka et al, 2011).…”

A 3 tesla magnetic resonance imaging volumetric analysis of the hippocampal formation: dependence on handedness and age

“…The medial structures of the temporal lobe, especially the hippocampal formation (HF), play an important role in performance of the complex cognitive and behavioural tasks, such as the learning process, memory formation, language, planning, and processing of some emotions [9,19,23,35]. Malformation, disorder or damage of the HF have a great importance in the pathogenesis, or consequences, of the variety of the neurological and psychiatric disorders, e.g.…”