Reasoning About Trust Among Individuals With Williams Syndrome

Ng, Ren; Fillet, Patricia; DeWitt, Michelle; Heyman, Gail D.; Bellugi, Ursula

doi:10.1352/1944-7558-120.6.527

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Behaviorally, we predicted that WS participants would make more trusting responses than TD adults. Further, in accord with previous research findings, we predicted that WS individuals would show less discrimination in approach responses between high- and low-trust faces compared to the TD group (Ng et al, 2015 ). We expected TD participants to make more avoid responses to low-trust faces and more approach responses to high-trust faces.…”

supporting

confidence: 86%

“…In addition, the low-trust faces used in this paradigm were rated as averagely trustworthy (around the midpoint of the rating scale). This may have made the task more difficult for individuals with WS, as previous research suggests they are less able to discriminate trustworthy from untrustworthy faces (Ng et al, 2015 ). However, the results from this study show that WS participants were able to discriminate between high- and low-trust faces when making trust responses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research shows increased approach behaviors toward untrustworthy faces (Martens, Hasinski, Andridge, & Cunningham, 2012 ), and atypical assessment of stranger-danger scenarios in individuals with WS (Riby, Kirk, Hanley, & Riby, 2014 ). Compared to typically developing adults (TD), individuals with WS exhibit atypical reasoning about the trustworthiness of others, such that they are less able to discriminate between trustworthy and untrustworthy individuals (Ng, Fillet, DeWitt, Heyman, & Bellugi, 2015 ). They also show a bias toward faces in general (Dodd, Porter, Peters, & Rapee, 2010 ) and positive faces specifically (Frigerio et al, 2006 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 1 This question was used as pilot data and a previous behavioral study (Ng et al, 2015 ) showed WS participants did not fully understand the abstract question, “Would you trust this person?” …”

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confidence: 99%

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Abnormalities in early visual processes are linked to hypersociability and atypical evaluation of facial trustworthiness: An ERP study with Williams syndrome

Shore

Bellugi

et al. 2017

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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Accurate assessment of trustworthiness is fundamental to successful and adaptive social behavior. Initially, people assess trustworthiness from facial appearance alone. These assessments then inform critical approach or avoid decisions. Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit a heightened social drive, especially toward strangers. This study investigated the temporal dynamics of facial trustworthiness evaluation in neurotypic adults (TD) and individuals with WS. We examined whether differences in neural activity during trustworthiness evaluation may explain increased approach motivation in WS compared to TD individuals. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants appraised faces previously rated as trustworthy or untrustworthy. TD participants showed increased sensitivity to untrustworthy faces within the first 65–90 ms, indexed by the negative-going rise of the P1 onset (oP1). The amplitude of the oP1 difference to untrustworthy minus trustworthy faces was correlated with lower approachability scores. In contrast, participants with WS showed increased N170 amplitudes to trustworthy faces. The N170 difference to low–high-trust faces was correlated with low approachability in TD and high approachability in WS. The findings suggest that hypersociability associated with WS may arise from abnormalities in the timing and organization of early visual brain activity during trustworthiness evaluation. More generally, the study provides support for the hypothesis that impairments in low-level perceptual processes can have a cascading effect on social cognition.

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supporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Abnormalities in early visual processes are linked to hypersociability and atypical evaluation of facial trustworthiness: An ERP study with Williams syndrome

Shore

Bellugi

et al. 2017

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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“…Learning whom to trust and when to revise trust attributions is a difficult but important task. People exhibiting extremes in trust can experience significant distress and personal risk, as in the very-low trust which characterizes paranoia (1) (2), and the very-high trust in Williams Syndrome (3) or amygdalar lesions (4). In Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), trust is unstable, and interpersonal relationships are subject to recurrent episodes of rupture and repair.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential valuation and learning from social and non-social cues in Borderline Personality Disorder

Fineberg

Leavitt

Stahl

et al. 2018

Preprint

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BackgroundVolatile interpersonal relationships are a core feature of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and lead to devastating disruption of patients’ personal and professional lives. Quantitative models of social decision making and learning hold promise for defining the underlying mechanisms of this problem. In this study, we tested BPD and control subject weighting of social versus non-social information, and their learning about choices under stable and volatile conditions. We compared behavior using quantitative models.MethodsSubjects (n=20 BPD, n=23 control) played an extended reward learning task with a partner (confederate) that requires learning about non-social and social cue reward probability (The Social Valuation Task). Task experience was measured using language metrics: explicit emotions/beliefs, talk about the confederate, and implicit distress (using the previously established marker self-referentiality). Subjects’ weighting of social and non-social cues was tested in mixed-effects regression models. Subjects’ learning rates under stable and volatile conditions were modelled (Rescorla-Wagner approach) and group x condition interactions tested.ResultsCompared to controls, BPD subject debriefings included more mentions of the confederate and less distress language. BPD subjects also weighted social cues more heavily, but had blunted learning responses to (non-social and social) volatility.ConclusionsThis is the first report of patient behavior in the Social Valuation Task. The results suggest that BPD subjects expect higher volatility than do controls. These findings lay the groundwork for a neuro-computational dissection of social and non-social belief updating in BPD, which holds promise for the development of novel clinical interventions that more directly target pathophysiology.

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