Adolphs Ralph
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, HSS 228-77, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Brain Res. 2006 Mar 24;1079(1):25-35. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2005.12.127. Epub 2006 Feb 28.
In what ways, and to what extent, is social cognition distinguished from cognition in general? And how do data from cognitive neuroscience speak to this question? I review recent findings that argue social cognition may indeed be specialized, and at multiple levels. One particularly interesting respect in which social cognition differs from the rest of cognition is in its close interaction with the social environment. We actively probe other people in order to make inferences about what is going on in their minds (e.g., by asking them questions, and directing our gaze onto them), and we use the minds of other people as a collective resource. Experiments from our own laboratory point to the amygdala as one structure that is critically involved in such processes.
社会认知在哪些方面以及在多大程度上与一般认知有所区别？认知神经科学的数据如何回答这个问题？我回顾了最近的研究结果，这些结果表明社会认知可能确实在多个层面上具有特殊性。社会认知与其他认知不同的一个特别有趣的方面在于它与社会环境的密切互动。我们积极探究他人，以便推断他们内心在想什么（例如，通过向他们提问以及将目光投向他们），并且我们将他人的思想作为一种集体资源加以利用。我们自己实验室的实验表明杏仁核是参与此类过程的一个关键结构。
