Department of Psychiatry, University of Cologne, Kerpener Str. 62, 50924 Cologne, Germany.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2011 Sep;6(4):393-403. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq067. Epub 2010 Jul 22.
Previous evidence suggests that 'social gaze' can not only cause shifts in attention, but also can change the perception of objects located in the direction of gaze and how these objects will be manipulated by an observer. These findings implicate differences in the neural networks sub-serving action control driven by social cues as compared with nonsocial cues. Here, we sought to explore this hypothesis by using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm in which participants were asked to generate spatially congruent or incongruent motor responses to both social and nonsocial stimuli. Data analysis revealed recruitment of a dorsal frontoparietal network and the locus coeruleus for the generation of incongruent motor responses, areas previously implicated in controlling attention. As a correlate for the effect of 'social gaze' on action control, an interaction effect was observed for incongruent responses to social stimuli in sub-cortical structures, anterior cingulate and inferior frontal cortex. Our results, therefore, suggest that performing actions in a--albeit minimal--social context significantly changes the neural underpinnings of action control and recruits brain regions previously implicated in action monitoring, the reorienting of attention and social cognition.
先前的证据表明，“社交凝视”不仅可以引起注意力的转移，还可以改变观察者对注视方向上物体的感知，以及他们将如何操纵这些物体。这些发现表明，与非社交线索相比，驱动社会线索的动作控制的神经网络存在差异。在这里，我们使用功能磁共振成像和刺激-反应相容性范式来探索这一假设，参与者被要求对社会和非社会刺激做出空间一致或不一致的运动反应。数据分析显示，在产生不一致的运动反应时，背侧额顶网络和蓝斑被招募，这些区域以前与注意力控制有关。作为“社交凝视”对动作控制影响的相关物，在前扣带皮层和下额叶皮层等皮质下结构中观察到对社会刺激的不一致反应的相互作用效应。因此，我们的结果表明，在——尽管是最小的——社会环境中执行动作会显著改变动作控制的神经基础，并招募以前与动作监测、注意力重新定向和社会认知相关的大脑区域。
