The Amygdala and Social Perception. The amygdala is a key structure connecting sensory representations with valuation, social inference, attentional modulation, and memory encoding. As such, it plays a prominent role in one particular … Expand.
Introduction to the Special Issue on the human amygdala and emotional function. View 1 excerpt, cites background. Lateralized interactive social content and valence processing within the human amygdala.
View 3 excerpts, cites results and background. The amygdala is a fascinating, complex structure that lies at the center of much of our current thinking about emotion. Here, I will review data that suggest that the amygdala is involved in several … Expand. View 3 excerpts, cites background. Amygdala in action: Relaying biological and social significance to autobiographical memory. Of Evidence from Brain Imaging Studies. View 2 excerpts, cites results and background.
The team recruited 26 cognitively normal patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis RRMS and gave them a battery of neuropsychological, social cognition, and quality of life assessments at baseline and then 3 years later.
From these tests, the investigators calculated social cognition composite SCcomp scores for each patient. The volunteers were also given 3T-MRI scans at baseline and at 3 years. By the 3-year checkpoint, all 25 patients were still categorized as cognitive normal, and their global social cognition performance remained stable.
The investigators found that changes in SCcomp over the 3-year period correlated with changes in emotional state, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and quality of life-social functioning. Blood , — Finger, E. Caught in the act: the impact of audience on the neural response to morally and socially inappropriate behavior. Neuroimage 33, — Franzen, E.
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Trail making test: normative values from normal adult controls. Huber, S. Comparing a single case to a control group — applying linear mixed-effects models to repeated measures data. Cortex 71, — Inman, C. Human amygdala stimulation effects on emotion physiology and emotional experience. Neuropsychologia in press. Jacobs, R. The amygdala, top-down effects, and selective attention to features.
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Padova: Upsel Domeneghini Editore. Pujol, J. Mapping the sequence of brain events in response to disgusting food. Brain Mapp. Pulcu, E. Increased amygdala response to shame in remitted major depressive disorder. PLoS One 9:e Sabatinelli, D. Emotional perception: meta-analyses of face and natural scene processing. Neuroimage 54, — Saez, A. Abstract context representations in primate amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
Neuron 87, — Scarpina, F. How many segments are there in an orange: normative data for the new cognitive estimation task in an Italian population. Smith, M. Transmitting and decoding facial expressions. Spezio, M. If we have not acquired this ability by adolescence, we may find ourselves becoming increasingly socially isolated and avoided by others in other than the most superficial social encounters. A fully functioning social brain entails the development of a coordinated network of human cortical brain regions.
These include the dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the paracingulate cortex, and the right and left temporoparietal junctions 2. The amygdala is also central to the neural circuitry underlying social cognition. It plays a key role in systems that associate social stimuli auditory, visual, and olfactory with value, it directs our unconscious responses during social encounters, and it arouses us to stimuli of relevance in our environment.
The amygdala's reciprocal connections with the primary visual processing area in the inferior occipital gyrus facilitate the rapid analysis of socially salient information 3.
Neural circuits of the social brain are activated by facial emotions, tone of voice, or olfactory cues and include the hippocampus, thus are linked to recognition memory. This complex network allows us to contextualize our perceptions and hence find answers to questions such as Do I know this person?
Do I like him? Do I trust him? In a recent review on the challenge of translation in social neuroscience, Insel 4 outlined the considerable progress being made in our understanding of how social information is processed by the brain. He points out that, despite our knowledge of sensory processing at the level of auditory, visual, and other perceptual cues, and our discovery of social behaviors such as affiliation in ever more simple organisms [ e.
Caenorhabditis elegans 5 ], we have learned relatively little about how quite simple molecular mechanisms are translated into human social behavior.
One promising path of research concerns the role played by neuropeptides and their receptors, of which around have been described in the human brain, most of which are released from the hypothalamus. Our focus here is on the nonapeptides, oxytocin OT and vasopressin AVP , that have been the subject of fascinating and important investigations in relation to their role in modulating social behavior for two decades 6.
OT and AVP have both central and peripheral actions that have been implicated in the molecular basis of social cognition in animal models. Increasingly, a role for these neuropeptides in regulating human social cognition has been suggested. The genes encoding the two proteins both occur on chromosome 20 and are thought to have arisen from a gene duplication event; the ancestral gene is estimated to be about million years old 7.
The presence of nonapeptides similar to OT and AVP has been described in diverse species, from birds to mammals. Their relative similarity suggests that they have been conserved during evolution. Both molecules have widespread receptor-mediated effects on behavior and physiology 4. In mammals, estrogens modulate both the synthesis of and receptors for oxytocin. Androgens act similarly on AVP although some species-specific differences exist.
Accordingly, to a degree, these neuropeptides influence sexually dimorphic social behaviors 8. OT has both peripheral and central actions.
Peripherally, OT acts as a hormone that has a critical role in parturition and lactation, whereas centrally, it acts as a neuromodulator via a G-coupled protein receptor. It is produced from two sources. First, from the magnocellular neurosecretory cells located in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus.
Magnocellular neurons project exclusively to the posterior pituitary. Recent evidence suggests that OT is released into the brain from its dendrites into extracellular space, and this more generalized release mechanism can be regulated independently of the pituitary system 9. Formerly, the paraventricular neurons were thought to play the major role in the behavioral functions of the neuropeptide; there are centrally acting projections to limbic-system hippocampus, amygdala, striatum, hypothalamus, and nucleus accumbens and mid- and hind-brain nuclei Peripheral OT does not cross the blood-brain barrier easily, although it is observed in human cerebrospinal fluid CSF just minutes after intranasal administration OT has been given experimentally to humans both by i.
It seems to influence a variety of social and behavioral responses, as witnessed by a variety of studies in recent years The action of OT in increasing trust and prosocial behavior is apparently mediated, at least in part, through influence on general social appraisal including perception of interpersonal threat.
A key player in the detection of relevant stimuli in our environment, including our response to apparent threat, is the amygdala, which is activated by excitatory pathways that connect the central amygdala nucleus to the midbrain, and thence to the autonomic nervous system. Excessive amygdala activation during social encounters raises anxiety, leading to social withdrawal In humans, such activation is potently increased by direct eye contact 19 , There is evidence that exogenous OT acts to reduce activation of the amygdala, midbrain regions, and the dorsal striatum, postulated to be as a consequence of influence on reflexive visual attention mechanisms 12 , reducing uncertainty regarding the predictive value of social stimuli 21 or increasing the perceived salience of social cues This reduction in the physiological and psychological reaction to threat accounts, at least in part, for the increase in prosocial behavior.
Autism is an early neurodevelopmental disorder presenting in childhood, with deficits in social cognition and communication and rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior central to the presentation. Genetic variations in genes related to OT and its receptor have been variably reported as being associated with autism susceptibility see below. Plasma levels of OT are low in autistic individuals 23 and tend to normalize with the administration of exogenous OT The use of exogenously administered OT to treat autistic behaviors is a subject of growing interest.
A reduction in repetitive behaviors was reported by Hollander et al. Autism affects four times as many males as females. Male vulnerability to this quintessential disorder of social cognition has been attributed to testosterone exposure, especially in utero , but this controversial theory has not been proven Thus, it is possible that higher levels of OT might be protective of females, whatever independent predisposing factors lead to autism risk.
Accordingly, hypothetically, in females, neuropeptidergic regulation of neural circuitry influencing social cognition could prevent autistic behavior being fully expressed phenotypically. Only a single type of OTR has been identified 30 and it is located at chromosome 3p It can be found in many different tissues in the body, but its distribution is highly variable, both within and between species.
The potential for environmental influences on the functioning of OT and related proteins exists. Regions of high GC content CpG islands upstream of the transcription start site of the OTR gene suggest that it may be susceptible to regulation through differential methylation, which could potentially influence the pattern of tissue expression. By this means, lifelong differences in the sensitivity of the receptor could be subject to epigenetic influences, consequent upon environmental circumstances of upbringing By analogy, receptor expression in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal HPA axis may be reduced by adversity, such as the quality of early maternal care Variations in a specific polymorphism of the OTR gene rs have been linked to variations in behavioral style among typical individuals, including empathy and stress reactivity 33 , loneliness 34 , prosocial temperament 35 , and maternal sensitivity to their offspring Not all studies have found this association Conversely, Tost et al.
There may also be an association between the gene variant and susceptibility to develop an autistic disorder, although the finding has not been consistent across studies.
Although the association that Wu et al. A potential role for the CD38 gene in the regulation of OT release has been suggested by recent investigations CD38 is a multifunctional molecule that plays a key role in a wide variety of tissue-related activities including migration, adhesion, and secretion. It is highly expressed in the brain in both glial cells and neurons.
If the gene is knocked out in mice, there is over-storage of OT and reduced release, resulting in low plasma OT levels and reduced social behavior 9. However, at this time, we do not know whether these findings in mice are replicable in primates, including humans, although the role of the CD38 system in regulating OT release is clearly of considerable interest to those seeking a pharmacological intervention that could ameliorate autistic behavior.
Could the response to OT by autistic subjects in treatment studies be modified by differential sensitivity of the OTR? As discussed, a genetic variant of the OTR gene has a sexually dimorphic impact upon social responsiveness in typical adults 35 and apparently influences nonautistic individuals in their theory of mind skills, empathic tendencies 33 , and the ability to sustain eye gaze We also know from the few studies that have administered OT to autistic subjects that there are substantial variations in response to exogenous OT, both within group and within individuals, according to the nature of the task AVP synthesis occurs in the hypothalamus, but it is released into general circulation from the pituitary.
AVP acts as a hormone regulating water balance in the periphery, and it also has neuropeptidergic actions in the CNS.
Androgen-dependent synthesis occurs in parvocellular neurons within the paraventricular nuclei, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the medial amygdala, and suprachiasmatic nucleus Three distinct AVP receptor subtypes have been described. The V1a receptor V1aR is expressed widely in the brain, as well as in the liver, kidney, and peripheral vasculature.
The V1b receptor V1bR is expressed in the brain and also peripherally kidney, thymus, heart, lung, spleen, uterus, and breast. The V2 receptor is expressed primarily in the kidneys. AVP has the capacity to bind not only to AVP receptors but also to the OTR, indicating that it has the potential to modulate the activity of various subtypes 4.
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