{"id":169,"date":"2016-10-27T21:56:55","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T21:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mylearningsource.wordpress.com\/?page_id=169"},"modified":"2021-11-12T06:33:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T06:33:34","slug":"the-social-brain","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/enablenet.info\/wordpress\/en\/autism\/autism-2\/the-social-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Social Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Being social feels so easy to most of us; we only realise the complexity of it when we try to understand and help those who have difficulties being social. Most of what we feel and do to be social happens at a behavioural level, some of which is almost automatic or learnt, but a lot of it is supported by cognitive processes. These processes help us perceive and understand others\u2019 actions and thoughts, and flexibly modify our thoughts and feelings as situations change. These behavioural and cognitive processes are underpinned by the structure and function of our brain. A simple causal scheme for social behaviour[i]<\/a> would look something like:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The social brain<\/strong> is a network of brain regions that specialise in social thinking and actions. The identity of this network is mostly based on:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. observing an increase in activation in neuroimaging studies of healthy adults engaging in a variety of social cognitive tasks (e.g., recognizing familiar people, evaluating whether they are trustworthy or not, or making inferences about their thoughts and intentions), and<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. neuroimaging of patients with impairments in social cognition (e.g., diminished empathy or warmth towards others, lack of understanding others\u05f3 intentions)[ii]<\/a>,[iii]<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This network is widespread in the brain and includes cortical areas such as orbitofrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, temporoparietal junction, fusiform face are and subcortical structures, such as amygdala[iv]<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Social cognitive processes and brain regions[v]<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Social cognitive processes<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nBrain regions activated<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Sensory processing<\/span><\/td>\nSuperior colliculus<\/span><\/p>\n

    Fusiform gyrus<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Reward evaluation<\/span><\/td>\nAmygdala (also discriminating signal from noise, threat from reward, or friend from foe and thereby guiding adaptive interpersonal behaviour)<\/span><\/p>\n

    Orbitofrontal cortex<\/span><\/p>\n

    Ventral striatum<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Representation of perceived action (making sense of other\u2019s actions)<\/span><\/td>\nMirror neurons<\/span><\/p>\n

    Premotor cortex<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Motivation<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nAnterior cingulate cortex<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Theory of mind<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTemporoparietal junction<\/span><\/p>\n

    Medial frontal cortex<\/span><\/p>\n

    Posterior cingulate<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Empathy and moral emotions<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nInsula<\/span><\/p>\n

    Ventromedial prefrontal cortex<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Social reasoning<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nPrefrontal cortex<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Social regulation<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nPrefrontal cortex<\/span><\/p>\n

    Anterior cingulate cortex<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Abnormalities of connectivity can cause dysfunction similar to ASD e.g. up to 30% of patients with agenesis of corpus collosum have ASD and social dysfunction <\/strong>iii<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Here is a picture to show the extant of the \u201csocial brain\u201d (in purple):<\/span><\/p>\n

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    And here is a representation of the four key networks:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    The functions of the amygdala network range from triggering emotional responses to detecting socially salient stimuli to social affiliative behaviours. A second is the so-called mentalising network, a collection of structures activated by thinking about the internal states of others. A third is recruited when individuals empathize with others. A fourth network is activated during observation of the actions of others, including their emotional expressions. Note that, for simplicity and clarity, not all regions implicated in the networks are shown; several networks also involve other subcortical and brainstem structures that are not illustrated hereiii.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Levels of \u2018social\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>iii<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Social functioning is broader than social behavior in that it refers to the long-term, contextualized ability of an individual to interact with others (e.g., a person’s behavior within a community over the past months). In principle, the relationship between the different levels of \u2018social\u2019 is straightforward:<\/span><\/p>\n