van Ast V A, Spicer J, Smith E E, Schmer-Galunder S, Liberzon I, Abelson J L, Wager T D
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2016 Feb;26(2):544-556. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu206. Epub 2014 Sep 23.
Social threat can have adverse effects on cognitive performance, but the brain mechanisms underlying its effects are poorly understood. We investigated the effects of social evaluative threat on working memory (WM), a core component of many important cognitive capabilities. Social threat impaired WM performance during an N-back task and produced widespread reductions in activation in lateral prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus (IPS), among other regions. In addition, activity in frontal and parietal regions predicted WM performance, and mediation analyses identified regions in the bilateral IPS that mediated the performance-impairing effects of social threat. Social threat also decreased connectivity between the IPS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, while increasing connectivity between the IPS and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region strongly implicated in the generation of autonomic and emotional responses. Finally, cortisol response to the stressor did not mediate WM impairment but was rather associated with protective effects. These results provide a basis for understanding interactions between social and cognitive processes at a neural systems level.
社会威胁会对认知表现产生不利影响，但其影响背后的大脑机制却鲜为人知。我们研究了社会评价性威胁对工作记忆（WM）的影响，工作记忆是许多重要认知能力的核心组成部分。在N-back任务中，社会威胁损害了工作记忆表现，并导致外侧前额叶皮层和顶内沟（IPS）等区域的激活广泛减少。此外，额叶和顶叶区域的活动预测了工作记忆表现，中介分析确定了双侧顶内沟中介导社会威胁对表现损害作用的区域。社会威胁还降低了顶内沟与背外侧前额叶皮层之间的连接性，同时增加了顶内沟与腹内侧前额叶皮层之间的连接性，腹内侧前额叶皮层与自主神经和情绪反应的产生密切相关。最后，对应激源的皮质醇反应并未介导工作记忆损害，反而与保护作用相关。这些结果为在神经系统层面理解社会与认知过程之间的相互作用提供了基础。
