Santamaría-García Hernando, Burgaleta Miguel, Sebastián-Gallés Nuria
Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08018, Barcelona, Spain
Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08018, Barcelona, Spain.
J Neurosci. 2015 Jul 29;35(30):10843-50. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1457-14.2015.
Social hierarchy is an ubiquitous principle of social organization across animal species. Although some progress has been made in our understanding of how humans infer hierarchical identity, the neuroanatomical basis for perceiving key social dimensions of others remains unexplored. Here, we combined event-related potentials and structural MRI to reveal the neuroanatomical substrates of early status recognition. We designed a covertly simulated hierarchical setting in which participants performed a task either with a superior or with an inferior player. Participants showed higher amplitude in the N170 component when presented with a picture of a superior player compared with an inferior player. Crucially, the magnitude of this effect correlated with brain morphology of the posterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus, insula, fusiform gyrus, and caudate nucleus. We conclude that early recognition of social hierarchies relies on the structural properties of a network involved in the automatic recognition of social identity.
Humans can perceive social hierarchies very rapidly, an ability that is key for social interactions. However, some individuals are more sensitive to hierarchical information than others. Currently, it is unknown how brain structure supports such fast-paced processes of social hierarchy perception and their individual differences. Here, we addressed this issue for the first time by combining the high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) and the high spatial resolution of structural MRI. This methodological approach allowed us to unveil a novel association between ERP neuromarkers of social hierarchy perception and the morphology of several cortical and subcortical brain regions typically assumed to play a role in automatic processes of social cognition. Our results are a step forward in our understanding of the human social brain.
社会等级制度是动物界社会组织中普遍存在的原则。尽管我们在理解人类如何推断等级身份方面取得了一些进展，但感知他人关键社会维度的神经解剖学基础仍未得到探索。在这里，我们结合事件相关电位和结构磁共振成像来揭示早期地位识别的神经解剖学基础。我们设计了一个暗中模拟的等级环境，参与者在其中与上级或下级玩家执行任务。与下级玩家相比，当呈现上级玩家的图片时，参与者在N170成分中表现出更高的振幅。至关重要的是，这种效应的大小与后扣带回皮质、颞上回、脑岛、梭状回和尾状核的脑形态相关。我们得出结论，社会等级制度的早期识别依赖于参与社会身份自动识别的网络的结构特性。
人类能够非常快速地感知社会等级制度，这种能力是社会互动的关键。然而，一些个体比其他个体对等级信息更敏感。目前，尚不清楚大脑结构如何支持这种快节奏的社会等级制度感知过程及其个体差异。在这里，我们首次通过结合事件相关电位（ERP）的高时间分辨率和结构磁共振成像的高空间分辨率来解决这个问题。这种方法使我们能够揭示社会等级制度感知的ERP神经标记与通常被认为在社会认知自动过程中起作用的几个皮质和皮质下脑区的形态之间的新关联。我们的结果在我们对人类社会大脑的理解上迈出了一步。
