Luo Qiang, Ma Yina, Bhatt Meghana A, Montague P Read, Feng Jianfeng
School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Institute of Science and Technology of Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2017 Nov 2;11:513. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00513. eCollection 2017.
Impression management, as one of the most essential skills of social function, impacts one's survival and success in human societies. However, the neural architecture underpinning this social skill remains poorly understood. By employing a two-person bargaining game, we exposed three strategies involving distinct cognitive processes for social impression management with different levels of strategic deception. We utilized a novel adaptation of Granger causality accounting for signal-dependent noise (SDN), which captured the directional connectivity underlying the impression management during the bargaining game. We found that the sophisticated strategists engaged stronger directional connectivity from both dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex to rostral prefrontal cortex, and the strengths of these directional influences were associated with higher level of deception during the game. Using the directional connectivity as a neural signature, we identified the strategic deception with 80% accuracy by a machine-learning classifier. These results suggest that different social strategies are supported by distinct patterns of directional connectivity among key brain regions for social cognition.
印象管理作为社会功能最重要的技能之一，影响着一个人在人类社会中的生存与成功。然而，支撑这种社交技能的神经结构仍鲜为人知。通过采用两人讨价还价博弈，我们揭示了三种涉及不同认知过程的策略，用于不同程度战略欺骗的社会印象管理。我们利用了一种针对信号相关噪声（SDN）的格兰杰因果关系的新颖改编方法，该方法捕捉了讨价还价博弈期间印象管理背后的定向连接。我们发现，老练的策略者从背侧前扣带回皮质和 retrosplenial 皮质到前额叶喙部皮质具有更强的定向连接，并且这些定向影响的强度与博弈期间更高水平的欺骗相关。以定向连接作为神经特征，我们通过机器学习分类器以80%的准确率识别出战略欺骗。这些结果表明，不同的社会策略由社会认知关键脑区之间不同的定向连接模式所支持。
