Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (50 page)

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Authors: Matthew D. Lieberman

Tags: #Psychology, #Social Psychology, #Science, #Life Sciences, #Neuroscience, #Neuropsychology

BOOK: Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
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169

individuals with autism produced mu suppression only when they performed hand actions themselves
Oberman, L. M., Hubbard, E. M., McCleery, J. P., Altshuler, E. L., Ramachandran, V. S., & Pineda, J. A. (2005). EEG evidence for mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders.
Cognitive Brain Research, 24
, 190–198.

169

the conclusion that mirror system activity differs in the autistic sample is unwarranted
Nieuwenhuis, S., Forstmann, B. U., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2011). Erroneous analyses of interactions in neuroscience: A problem of significance.
Nature Neuroscience, 14
(9), 1105–1107.

169

One fMRI study found that individuals with autism
Dapretto, M., Davies, M. S., Pfeifer, J. H., Scott, A. A., Sigman, M., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Iacoboni, M. (2005). Understanding emotions in others: Mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders.
Nature Neuroscience, 9
(1), 28–30.

170

The other study found that this group produced decreased activity
Williams, J. H., Waiter, G. D., Gilchrist, A., Perrett, D. I., Murray, A. D., & Whiten, A. (2006). Neural mechanisms of imitation and mirror neuron functioning in autistic spectrum disorder.
Neuropsychologia, 44
(4), 610–621.

170

Multiple studies have shown roughly equal levels of mu suppression
Fan, Y. T., Decety, J., Yang, C. Y., Liu, J. L., & Cheng, Y. (2010). Unbroken mirror neurons in autism spectrum disorders.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51
(9), 981–988; Raymaekers, R., Wiersema, J. R., & Roeyers, H. (2009). EEG study of the mirror neuron system in children with high functioning autism.
Brain Research, 1304
, 113–121.

170

a number of fMRI studies have shown equivalent or enhanced mirror system
Dinstein, I., Thomas, C., Humphreys, K., Minshew, N., Behr-mann, M., & Heeger, D. J. (2010). Normal movement selectivity in autism.
Neuron, 66
(3), 461–469; Marsh, L. E., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2011). Dissociation of mirroring and mentalising systems in autism.
NeuroImage, 56
(3), 1511–1519; Martineau, J., Andersson, F., Barthélémy, C., Cottier, J. P., & Destrieux, C. (2010). Atypical activation of the mirror neuron system during perception of hand motion in autism.
Brain Research, 1320
, 168–175.

170

imitation performance cannot be so easily equated
Southgate, V., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2008). Unbroken mirrors: Challenging a theory of autism.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12
(6), 225–229.

171

nonautistic individuals take longer to perform the incompatible movement
Bird, G., Leighton, J., Press, C., & Heyes, C. (2007). Intact automatic imitation of human and robot actions in autism spectrum disorders.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 274
(1628), 3027–3031.

171

Another group using a different automatic imitation paradigm
Spengler, S., Bird, G., & Brass, M. (2010). Hyperimitation of actions is related to reduced understanding of others’ minds in autism spectrum conditions.
Biological Psychiatry, 68
(12), 1148–1155.

173

We tend to assume that outsides and insides match
Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995). The correspondence bias.
Psychological Bulletin, 117
(1), 21.

174

the intense world hypothesis of autism
Markram, H., Rinaldi, T., & Markram, K. (2007). The intense world syndrome: An alternative hypothesis for autism.
Frontiers in Neuroscience, 1
(1), 77–96; Markram, K., & Markram, H. (2010). The intense world theory: A unifying theory of the neurobiology of autism.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4
, 1–29.

174

People are loud confusing creatures… . And they expect me to add eye contact?
http://nolongerinabox.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/on-eye-contact/
.

175

In humans, the amygdala seems particularly responsive
Adolphs, R., Baron-Cohen, S., & Tranel, D. (2002). Impaired recognition of social emotions following amygdala damage.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14
(8), 1264–1274.

175

And while the amygdala does respond to intense positive and negative cues
Small, D. M., Gregory, M. D., Mak, Y. E., Gitelman, D., Mesulam, M. M., & Parrish, T. (2003). Dissociation of neural representation of intensity and affective valuation in human gustation.
Neuron, 39
(4), 701.

175

Even subliminally presented fearful faces
Morris, J. S., Öhman, A., & Dolan, R. J. (1999). A subcortical pathway to the right amygdala mediating “unseen” fear.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96
(4), 1680–1685; Whalen, P. J., Rauch, S. L., Etcoff, N. L., McInerney, S. C., Lee, M. B., & Jenike, M. A. (1998). Masked presentations of emotional facial expressions modulate amygdala activity without explicit knowledge.
Journal of Neuroscience, 18
(1), 411–418.

175

The best initial evidence for an amygdala-autism link
Baron-Cohen, S., Ring, H. A., Bullmore, E. T., Wheelwright, S., Ashwin, C., & Williams, S. C. (2000). The amygdala theory of autism.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 24
(3), 355–364; Critchley, H. D., Daly, E. M., Bullmore, E. T., Williams, S. C., Van Amelsvoort, T., Robertson, D. M., … , & Murphy, D. G. (2000). The functional neuroanatomy of social behaviour changes in cerebral blood flow when people with autistic disorder process facial expressions.
Brain, 123
(11), 2203–2212; Pierce, K., Müller, R. A., Ambrose, J., Allen, G., & Courchesne, E. (2001). Face processing occurs outside the fusiformface area in autism: Evidence from functional MRI.
Brain, 124
(10), 2059–2073.

175

When these findings were combined with the fact that amygdala damage in nonhuman primates
Bachevalier, J. (1991). An animal model for childhood autism: Memory loss and socioemotional disturbances following neonatal damage to the limbic system in monkeys.
Advances in Neuropsychiatry and Psychopharmacology, 1
, 129–140.

175

Children with autism actually have larger amygdalae
Amaral, D. G., Schumann, C. M., & Nordahl, C. W. (2008). Neuroanatomy of autism.
Trends in Neurosciences, 31
(3), 137–145.

175

This has been seen in children as young as two to four years old
Mosconi, M. W., Cody-Hazlett, H., Poe, M. D., Gerig, G., Gimpel-Smith, R., & Piven, J. (2009). Longitudinal study of amygdala volume and joint attention in 2-to 4-year-old children with autism.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 66
(5), 509; Schumann, C. M., Hamstra, J., Goodlin-Jones, B. L., Lotspeich, L. J., Kwon, H., Buonocore, M. H., … , & Amaral, D. G. (2004). The amygdala is enlarged in children but not adolescents with autism; the hippocampus is enlarged at all ages.
Journal of Neuroscience, 24
(28), 6392–6401.

175

Seeing that Einstein had an abnormally large parietal lobe
Witelson, S. F., Kigar, D. L., & Harvey, T. (1999). The exceptional brain of Albert Einstein.
Lancet
(London, England),
353
(9170), 2149–2153.

176

a sign that they may be overwhelmed by the environment
Juranek, J., Filipek, P. A., Berenji, G. R., Modahl, C., Osann, K., & Spence, M. A. (2006). Association between amygdala volume and anxiety level: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in autistic children.
Journal of Child Neurology, 21
(12), 1051–1058.

176

Autistic children also show enhanced threat detection
Krysko, K. M., & Rutherford, M. D. (2009). A threat-detection advantage in those with autism spectrum disorders.
Brain and Cognition, 69
(3), 472–480; Kleinhans, N., Johnson, L., Richards, T., Mahurin, R., Greenson, J., Dawson, G., & Aylward, E. (2009). Reduced neural habituation in the amygdala and social impairments in autism spectrum disorders.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 166
(4), 467–475.

176

increased amygdala volume at age three
Munson, J., Dawson, G., Abbott, R., Faja, S., Webb, S. J., Friedman, S. D., … , & Dager, S. R. (2006). Amygdalar volume and behavioral development in autism.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 63
(6), 686.

176

the visual pathways that feed potential threat information to the amygdala
Samson, F., Mottron, L., Soulières, I., & Zeffiro, T. A. (2011). Enhanced visual functioning in autism: An ALE meta-analysis.
Human Brain Mapping, 33
, 1553-1581.

176

Some evidence also suggests that autistic individuals
Baron-Cohen, S., Ashwin, E., Ashwin, C., Tavassoli, T., & Chakrabarti, B. (2009). Talent in autism: Hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364
(1522), 1377–1383; Blakemore, S. J., Tavassoli, T., Calò, S., Thomas, R. M., Catmur, C., Frith, U., & Haggard, P. (2006). Tactile sensitivity in Asperger syndrome.
Brain and Cognition, 61
(1), 5–13; Crane, L., Goddard, L., & Pring, L. (2009). Sensory processing in adults with autism spectrum disorders.
Autism, 13
(3), 215–228; Khalfa, S., Bruneau, N., Rogé, B., Georgieff, N., Veuillet, E., Adrien, J. L., … , & Collet, L. (2004). Increased perception of loudness in autism.
Hearing Research, 198
(1), 87–92; Kern, J. K., Trivedi, M. H., Garver, C. R., Grannemann, B. D., Andrews, A. A., Savla, J. S., … , & Schroeder, J. L. (2006). The pattern of sensory processing abnormalities in autism.
Autism, 10
(5), 480–494.

176

When you or I see a face
Neumann, D., Spezio, M. L., Piven, J., & Adolphs, R. (2006). Looking you in the mouth: Abnormal gaze in autism resulting from impaired top-down modulation of visual attention.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1
(3), 194–202.

176

Nonautistics spend nearly twice as much time looking at the eyes
Pelphrey, K. A., Sasson, N. J., Reznick, J. S., Paul, G., Goldman, B. D., & Piven, J. (2002). Visual scanning of faces in autism.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32
(4), 249–261; Neumann, D., Spezio, M. L., Piven, J., & Adolphs, R. (2006). Looking you in the mouth: Abnormal gaze in autism resulting from impaired top-down modulation of visual attention.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1
(3), 194–202.

176

These differences in social gazing (that is, how we look at faces)
Dalton, K. M., Nacewicz, B. M., Johnstone, T., Schaefer, H. S., Gernsbacher, M. A., Goldsmith, H. H., … , & Davidson, R. J. (2005). Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism.
Nature Neuroscience, 8
(4), 519–526.

Chapter 8: Trojan Horse Selves

181

A few decades later, J. J. Becher published
Physica Subterranea
Becher, J. J. (1669).
Physica subterranea.
Frankfurt.

182

In 1970, Gordon Gallup made a mirror available
Gallup, G. G. (1970). Chimpanzees: Self-recognition.
Science, 167
(3914), 86–87.

183

Paralleling work linking social interaction and self-awareness in humans
Gallup, G. G. (1977). Self-recognition in primates: A comparative approach to the bidirectional properties of consciousness.
American Psychologist, 32
(5), 329.

183

Not without some controversy, results like these
Plotnik, J. M., de Waal, F. B., & Reiss, D. (2006). Self-recognition in an Asian elephant.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103
(45), 17053–17057; Reiss, D., & Marino, L. (2001). Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: A case of cognitive convergence.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98
(10), 5937–5942.

183

In addition, the parietal region that responds
Lieberman, M. D. (2007). Social cognitive neuroscience: A review of core processes.
Annual Review of Psychology, 58
, 259–289.

184

Long before Descartes, the Oracle at Delphi urged all to “know thyself”
Baumeister, R. F. (1986).
Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self.
New York: Oxford University Press, p. 153.

184

Bill Kelley, Todd Heatherton, and Neil Macrae, prominent social neuroscientists
Kelley, W. M., Macrae, C. N., Wyland, C. L., Caglar, S., Inati, S., & Heatherton, T. F. (2002). Finding the self? An event-related fMRI study.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14
(5), 785–794.

186

The medial prefrontal region that was observed
Denny, B. T., Kober, H., Wager, T. D., & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of self and other judgments reveals a spatial gradient for mentalizing in medial prefrontal cortex.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24
(8), 1742–1752.

186

the MPFC was observed in 94 percent
Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Social cognitive neuroscience. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds).
Handbook of Social Psychology
, 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 143–193.

187

only our closer primate relatives
Tsujimoto, S., Genovesio, A., & Wise, S. P. (2011). Frontal pole cortex: Encoding ends at the end of the endbrain.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15
(4), 169–176; Preuss, T. M., & Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1991). Myelo- and cytoarchitecture of the granular frontal cortex and surrounding regions in the strepsirhine primate Galago and the anthropoid primate Macaca.
Journal of Comparative Neurology, 310
(4), 429–474.

188

Neuroanatomist Katarina Semendeferi examined the size of BA10
Semendeferi, K., Armstrong, E., Schleicher, A., Zilles, K., & Van Hoesen, G. W. (2001). Prefrontal cortex in humans and apes: A comparative study of area 10.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 114
(3), 224–241.

188

BA10 is less densely populated with neurons
Semendeferi, K., Teffer, K., Buxhoeveden, D. P., Park, M. S., Bludau, S., Amunts, K., … , & Buckwalter, J. (2011). Spatial organization of neurons in the frontal pole sets humans apart from great apes.
Cerebral Cortex, 21
(7), 1485–1497.

188

each “represents the unique, the very special
Hesse, H. (1923).
Demian.
New York: Boni & Liverright.

191

The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls
From
Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department
in June 1918, as quoted from Smithsonian.com: Jeanne Maglaty, “When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?” April 8, 2011.

192

learning about ourselves in the real world
Mead, G. H. (1934).
Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist
(C. W. Morris, Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago; Cooley, C. H. (1902).
Human Nature and the Social Order.
New York: Scribner.

193

We asked young adolescents (that is, thirteen-year-olds)
Pfeifer, J. H., Masten, C. L., Borofsky, L. A., Dapretto, M., Fuligni, A. J., & Lieberman, M. D. (2009). Neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in adolescents and adults: When social perspective-taking informs self-perception.
Child Development, 80
(4), 1016–1038.

196

For the few that are profoundly hypnotizable
Crasilneck, H. B., McCranie, E. J., & Jenkins, M. T. (1956). Special indications for hypnosis as a method of anesthesia.
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 162
(18), 1606–1608; Kosslyn, S. M., Thompson, W. L., Costantini-Ferrando, M. F., Alpert, N. M., & Spiegel, D. (2000). Hypnotic visual illusion alters color processing in the brain.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 157
(8), 1279–1284; Spiegel, H. (1970). A single-treatment method to stop smoking using ancillary self-hypnosis.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 18
(4), 235–250; Surman, O. S., Gottlieb, S. K., Hackett, T. P., & Silverberg, E. L. (1973). Hypnosis in the treatment of warts.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 28
(3), 439.

197

In our first study, we convinced undergraduates
Falk, E. B., Berkman, E. T., Mann, T., Harrison, B., & Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Predicting persuasion-induced behavior change from the brain.
Journal of Neuroscience, 30
, 8421–8424.

199

Focus groups don’t work all that well
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes.
Psychological Review, 84
(3), 231.

199

this time we used antismoking ads
Falk, E. B., Berkman, E. T., & Lieberman, M. D. (2011). Neural activity during health messaging predicts reductions in smoking above and beyond self-report.
Health Psychology, 30
, 177–185.

199

separate the ads based on the advertising campaign
Falk, E. B., Berkman, E. T., & Lieberman, M. D. (2012). From neural responses to population behavior: Neural focus group predicts population level media effects.
Psychological Science, 23
, 439–445.

201

“Living for others [is] such a relief
Alain de Botton tweet @alaindebotton 3/5/12, 3:00 a.m.

201

“Only a life lived for others is a life worth while”
New York Times
(1932). Einstein is terse in rule for success. June 20, p. 17.

201

I don’t really remember what it was like before
Louis C.K. quote from Interview with Jessica Grose, June 17, 2011, in
Slate
titled “Questions for Louis C.K.”

202

Prior to the modern era, humans spent a few years being cared for
Bakan, D. (1971). Adolescence in America: From idea to social fact.
Daedalus, 100
, 979–995; Fasick, F. A. (1994). On the “invention” of adolescence.
Journal of Early Adolescence, 14
(1), 6–23.

202

Steve Jobs warned the new graduates
Steve Jobs, 2005, Stanford commencement.

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