Network structure underlying resolution of conflicting non-verbal and verbal social information

Abstract

Social judgments often require resolution of incongruity in communication contents. Although previous studies revealed that such conflict resolution recruits brain regions including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG), functional relationships and networks among these regions remain unclear. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the functional dissociation and networks by measuring human brain activity during resolving incongruity between verbal and non-verbal emotional contents. First, we found that the conflict resolutions biased by the non-verbal contents activated the posterior dorsal mPFC (post-dmPFC), bilateral anterior insula (AI) and right dorsal pIFG, whereas the resolutions biased by the verbal contents activated the bilateral ventral pIFG. In contrast, the anterior dmPFC (ant-dmPFC), bilateral superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus were commonly involved in both of the resolutions. Second, we found that the post-dmPFC and right ventral pIFG were hub regions in networks underlying the non-verbal- and verbal-content-biased resolutions, respectively. Finally, we revealed that these resolution-type-specific networks were bridged by the ant-dmPFC, which was recruited for the conflict resolutions earlier than the two hub regions. These findings suggest that, in social conflict resolutions, the ant-dmPFC selectively recruits one of the resolution-type-specific networks through its interaction with resolution-type-specific hub regions.

Positive emotion impedes emotional but not cognitive conflict processing

“…Frequently, multimodal emotional information expressed by a social partner is ambiguous and, consequently, requires us to handle and interpret such conflicting information in effective communication (e.g., irony or humor; Pexman, 2008; Watanabe et al, 2014). For instance, irony often relies on multimodal expressions where emotional information expressed by the face and voice are in conflict (Wang, Lee, Sigman, & Dapretto, 2007).…”

The attribution of animacy and agency in frontotemporal dementia versus Alzheimer's disease

“…The literature also implicates the right pars triangularis, the intervening area of the IFG, as participating in action observation (Molnar-Szakacs, Iacoboni, Koski, & Mazziotta, 2005), mentalizing (Herbet, Lafargue, Moritz-Gasser, Bonnetblanc, & Duffau, 2015), and social communication (Yamasaki et al, 2010) The pars opercularis in particular may have a critical role in intention attribution and understanding and imitating others’ actions and intentions (Iacoboni, 2005; de Lange, Spronk, Willems, Toni, & Bekkering, 2008; Molnar-Szakacs et al, 2005; Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). The right pars opercularis may also facilitate subsequent social cognition, including emotion recognition (Adolphs, Baron-Cohen, & Tranel, 2002; Carr, Iacoboni, Dubeau, Mazziotta, & Lenzi, 2003; Kesler-West et al, 2001; Wildgruber et al, 2005), mentalizing (Adams et al, 2010; Herbet et al, 2014; Herbet et al, 2015; Moor et al, 2012), interpreting complex non-verbal social information (Watanabe et al, 2012; Watanabe et al, 2014), and empathy (Decety, 2011; Shamay-Tsoory et al, 2009). Together, this study, and literature implicates the right IFG, from pars orbitalis to pars opercularis, and possibly the underlying frontal operculum (Gobbini et al, 2007; Ross & Olson, 2010), in animacy attribution and related processes.…”

Promising evidence and remaining issues regarding the clinical application of oxytocin in autism spectrum disorders

“…A total of 40 highly functioning men with ASD participated and were randomized in the trial. Using fMRI, we examined the effects of oxytocin on behavioral and neural responses of the participants to a social psychological task . In our previous case–control study using the same psychological task, when making decisions about social information with conflicting verbal and nonverbal content, participants with ASD made judgments based on nonverbal content less frequently with longer response time and could not induce enough activation in the mPFC .…”

“…Using fMRI, we examined the effects of oxytocin on behavioral and neural responses of the participants to a social psychological task. 19 In our previous case-control study using the same psychological task, when making decisions about social information with conflicting verbal and nonverbal content, participants with ASD made judgments based on nonverbal content less frequently with longer response time and could not induce enough activation in the mPFC. 20 Therefore, our main outcomes and measures were the frequency of the nonverbal information-based judgments (NVJ), the response time for NVJ, and activity in the mPFC during NVJ.…”