Department of Psychology and Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007 Mar;2(1):45-51. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsl037.
Social neuroscience suggests medial pre-frontal cortex (mPFC) as necessary for social cognition. However, the mPFC activates less to members of extreme outgroups that elicit disgust, an emotion directed toward both people and objects. This study aimed to counteract that effect. Participants made either superficial categorical age estimations or individuating food-preference judgments about people, while fMRI recorded neural activity. Besides replicating the reduced mPFC activity to extreme outgroups that elicit disgust, this study demonstrates that the same type of judgment for these individuals is processed in a region anatomically distinct from social groups that elicit exclusively social emotions (pity, envy, pride). Finally, inferring individuating information (food preferences) increases mPFC activation above superficial categorical judgments. This evidence fits differentiated mPFC processing of extreme outgroups, which activate mPFC less than other groups, but suggests that individuation increases activation.
社会神经科学表明，内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）对于社会认知是必要的。然而，mPFC 对外群成员的激活程度较低，这些外群成员会引起厌恶，这是一种既针对人和物体的情绪。本研究旨在抵消这种影响。参与者对人和食物进行了表面的分类年龄估计或个体的食物偏好判断，同时进行 fMRI 记录神经活动。除了复制对引起厌恶的极端外群的 mPFC 活性降低之外，本研究还表明，对这些个体的相同类型的判断是在与仅引起社会情感（同情、嫉妒、自豪）的社会群体在解剖上不同的区域进行处理的。最后，推断个体信息（食物偏好）会增加 mPFC 对表面分类判断的激活。这一证据符合极端外群的 mPFC 分化处理，即 mPFC 对极端外群的激活程度低于其他群体，但表明个体分化会增加激活。
