人际互动中社会学习的计算神经机制

人类在社会互动中通过他人的行为对他人特质、意图及特定情境下的社会规范进行学习, 是优化决策、维护积极社会互动的重要条件。近年来, 越来越多的研究通过结合计算模型与神经影像技术对社会学习的认知计算机制及其神经基础进行了深入考察。已有研究发现, 人类的社会学习过程能够较好地被强化学习模型与贝叶斯模型刻画, 主要涉及的认知计算过程包括主观期望、预期误差和不确定性的表征以及信息整合的过程。大脑对这些计算过程的执行主要涉及奖惩加工相关脑区(如腹侧纹状体与腹内侧前额叶)、社会认知加工相关脑区(如背内侧前额叶和颞顶联合区)及认知控制相关脑区(如背外侧前额叶)。需要指出的是, 计算过程与大脑区域之间并不是一一映射的关系, 提示未来研究可借助多变量分析与脑网络分析等技术从系统神经科学的角度来考察大尺度脑网络如何执行不同计算过程。此外, 将来研究应注重生态效度, 利用超扫描技术考察真实互动下的社会学习过程, 并更多地关注内隐社会学习的计算与神经机制。     

社会性奖赏及其作用的神经机制

社会性奖赏指能够使个体在社会互动中获得动机性或娱乐性体验的社会刺激或社会关系。本文主要介绍社会性奖赏的概念、评估方式和神经基础。针对社会性奖赏与金钱奖赏加工是否存在共同的神经基础的争论,本研究明确指出社会性奖赏与金钱奖赏加工有一个共同的神经基础,但社会性奖赏加工还特异性地激活一些社会性脑区。鉴于理解社会性奖赏加工具有重要意义,未来还需要更多的研究进行验证,从而深入理解社会性奖赏加工的脑机制。     

社会等级加工的神经基础

社会等级是社会组织的基本原则。社会地位高低的再认与面孔再认及视觉注意均表现出N200的激活, 并不同程度地共享了情感、奖赏回报、数字等级及共情特质等加工的脑区网络, 涉及额区、杏仁核、纹状体、顶内沟和前扣带回皮质等。社会等级加工与5-羟色胺递质多态性等神经递质及内分泌系统具有复杂的交互作用。未来应立足于综合研究和系统分析的视角探讨社会等级加工与神经生物学基础的作用机制并致力于服务人类生活。     

用药动作线索诱发海洛因戒断者的镜像神经活动:一项fMRI研究

相关线索能够诱发药物依赖者的心理渴求,而健康人不会对相关线索产生心理渴求。15名海洛因成瘾者和12名没有任何物质滥用的健康被试参与实验,收集了他们在观看相关线索与对照线索时的脑神经活动。结果发现,药物线索能够诱发戒断者更多脑区的活动,包括扣带回和楔前叶。两组被试在对照动作线索刺激诱发作用下,其颞叶、顶叶均出现了较为一致的活动。在用药动作线索诱发作用下,戒断组双侧颞中回、双侧顶下小叶、左侧顶上小叶和右侧额下回显示出显著活动,并且与对照动作线索激活脑区一致;健康组被试除枕叶-颞叶联合区外,没有出现显著的脑区活动。以上结果表明,用药动作线索诱发了海洛因戒断者颞中回、顶下小叶、额下回等镜像神经系统的活动,这些脑区对不同类型的相关线索十分敏感,它们可能通过对用药动作的心理模拟,参与了用药动作线索的快速自动化加工。     

从动作模仿到社会认知：自我-他人控制的作用

在社会互动中, 人们具有自动模仿他人动作的倾向。尽管这种自动模仿有利于个体理解他人动作的感受, 但有时也会与自身的动作意图产生冲突。因此我们需要将自身动作意图与他人动作进行区分并调控二者之间的冲突。这种能力被称为自我-他人控制(self-other control, SOC)。与动作模仿控制相同, 心理理论、观点采择和共情等更高级的社会认知同样涉及对自我和他人信息的加工。很多证据表明, SOC可能是一种领域普遍的(domain-general)加工机制, 即在动作模仿控制和其他社会认知中, 大脑对自我和他人双方信息的区分和冲突调控共用同一套SOC系统。最近一些研究发现, 相比于抑制自身优势反应的抑制控制(inhibitory control), SOC是社会认知中一个更为关键的影响因素, 抑制控制对社会认知的作用受到SOC的调节。此外, SOC的领域普遍性提示我们, 未来可以通过简单的动作模仿控制训练, 来为社会认知受损个体(如孤独症和述情障碍者)进行康复训练。     

从自我到社会认知:默认网络和镜像神经元系统

自我知觉和社会认知是人类生活的基础。自我的概念包括身体自我和心理自我两个方面,社会认知被广泛定义为一系列的社会表征、社会互动和理解过程。默认网络主要表征自我和他人的心理层面特征以及社会认知加工,而镜像神经元系统连接着自我和他人的物理特性表征。默认网络由三个分系统组成,其中内侧前额叶皮层在社会认知中起了关键的作用,默认网络中的子系统也对社会理解起了重要的作用。默认网络和镜像神经元系统功能性地相互连接,动态地表征自我、他人以及支持社会互动。未来的研究将着重探讨默认网络和镜像神经元系统两个系统内外部的功能连接。     

元认知的神经机制:元认知功能、脑区与脑网络

元认知是指个体对当前进行的认知活动的监测和调节。通过对元认知神经机制研究的梳理,归纳出两条研究主线:一条主线以具体元认知加工的脑区激活研究为主,主要考察元认知与认知过程的分离及典型元认知加工的共享性和特异性。研究发现元认知加工主要与前额叶有关,还涉及脑岛、顶叶、颞叶和楔前叶等部分脑区。另一条主线探讨广泛的元认知功能与广泛大脑网络的相关。研究提出了大脑的“元认知网络”的概念,发现脑损伤或病变造成的元认知功能损伤与脑功能网络有关,而非固定在某一特定脑区。建议未来的研究应重视四个方面的研究:元认知加工的具体脑区和脑功能网络,元认知神经机制的分离,元认知脑功能的损伤和元认知训练的改善作用,以及基于神经机制研究的元认知模型的建构与修正。     

道德直觉决策及其机制探析

道德直觉决策研究是从直觉思维角度探讨决策者在道德境遇下的决策。道德直觉决策是道德情境下的直觉反应, 其理论基础包括躯体标记假说、社会直觉模型、双加工理论、事件特征情感复合体系以及双系统理论; 道德直觉决策机制至少包括：无意识加工、情绪加工和直觉加工三个基本的心理加工过程, 与之对应的神经系统则至少存在三个可能的脑神经回路：无意识加工的道德脑区、情绪加工的道德脑区和直觉加工的道德脑区。研究主要从客观和主观两方面分析了道德直觉决策的一般性影响因素--文化、道德境遇、经验、情绪和道德直觉; 揭示了道德直觉决策的加工机制。未来研究应在加强理论建构的基础上, 通过更缜密细致的实验设计去探究决策过程中各因素的交互作用, 并明确道德脑区之间的联结。     

视觉词汇加工的动态神经网络及其形成

揭示大脑加工的神经网络机制成为认知神经科学研究的最新取向.本研究以视觉词汇加工脑区(VWFA)的神经功能作为切入点,探讨视觉词汇加工神经网络的动态机制及其形成.研究一考察VWFA在刺激驱动和任务调节下的动态激活,及其与语音、语义脑区所组成神经网络的动态机制.研究二通过跨文化对比以及儿童阅读发展研究,阐明语言经验对视觉词汇加工网络的塑造作用.研究三对比功能网络、静息网络以及白质纤维束联结,探讨视觉词汇加工网络的动态联结及其形成.研究结果有助于建构视觉词汇加工的神经生理模型,为基于脑科学的阅读教学和阅读障碍矫治奠定理论基础,为认知神经科学研究提供了新的思路.     

手写体文字识别的特点及神经机制

手写体文字与打印体文字的识别过程存在很大差异, 与打印体文字相比, 手写体文字的识别受文本材料的影响更大, 具体包括文字的物理结构特性、文字特性、书写风格等。有关神经机制的研究发现, 手写体文字识别加工所涉及的脑区与打印体文字有所区别, 它既包含识别打印体文字的枕叶和外侧额顶叶, 还涉及到手写体文字识别的文化特异性脑区, 包括左后侧运动皮层, 外侧前额叶和后侧顶叶皮层。手写体文字加工既涉及整体加工, 也涉及特征加工, 加工方式既有其特异性, 又有与打印体文字的共同之处。未来研究应该进一步探究大脑在识别手写体文字时, 怎样在嘈杂的视觉信息中提取目标词, 并考虑手写体文字识别理论模型的构建, 以便更好地解释手写体文字的识别过程。     

Weaving the fabric of social interaction: Articulating developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience in the domain of motor cognition

In this article, we bring together recent findings from developmental science and cognitive neuroscience to argue that perception-action coupling constitutes the fundamental mechanism of motor cognition. A variety of empirical evidence suggests that observed and executed actions are coded in a common cognitive and neural framework, enabling individuals to construct shared representations of self and other actions. We review work to suggest that such shared representations support action anticipation, organization, and imitation. These processes, along with additional computational mechanisms for determining a sense of agency and behavioral regulation, form the fabric of social interaction. In addition, humans possess the capacity to move beyond these basic aspects of action analysis to interpret behavior at a deeper level, an ability that may be outside the scope of the mirror system. Understanding the nature of shared representations from the vantage point of developmental and cognitive science and neuroscience has the potential to inform a range of motor and social processes. This perspective also elucidates intriguing new directions and research questions and generates specific hypotheses regarding the impact of early disorders (e.g., developmental movement disorders) on subsequent action processing.     

Naming with proper names: the left temporal pole theory

Existing empirical data on proper names processing are critically reviewed in trying to understand which tasks may involve the left temporal pole, which proper name related functions are supported by this structure and eventually offer some speculations about why these functions might have developed in this location in the course of human evolution. While clinical group studies support the idea that proper name processing takes place in the left temporal pole, single case studies of selective proper name anomia or sparing, as well as neuroimaging studies, suggest the involvement of a larger neural network. Within this network, an important role may be played by the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex, including areas critical in social interaction. The differentiation in the brain of proper name processing from common names processing could in part be due to social pressure, favouring a neural system able to more efficiently and unambiguously sustain designating categories or designating individual entities. The activation of the left temporal pole in proper name processing is shown to increase with age. Longer social interaction may thus contribute to convey proper names processing toward areas closer to those supporting social cognition.     

Hierarchical growing grid networks for skeleton based action recognition

In this paper, a novel cognitive architecture for action recognition is developed by applying layers of growing grid neural networks. Using these layers makes the system capable of automatically arranging its representational structure. In addition to the expansion of the neural map during the growth phase, the system is provided with a prior knowledge of the input space, which increases the processing speed of the learning phase. Apart from two layers of growing grid networks the architecture is composed of a preprocessing layer, an ordered vector representation layer and a one-layer supervised neural network. These layers are designed to solve the action recognition problem. The first-layer growing grid receives the input data of human actions and the neural map generates an action pattern vector representing each action sequence by connecting the elicited activation of the trained map. The pattern vectors are then sent to the ordered vector representation layer to build the time-invariant input vectors of key activations for the second-layer growing grid. The second-layer growing grid categorizes the input vectors to the corresponding action clusters/sub-clusters and finally the one-layer supervised neural network labels the shaped clusters with action labels. Three experiments using different datasets of actions show that the system is capable of learning to categorize the actions quickly and efficiently. The performance of the growing grid architecture is compared with the results from a system based on Self-Organizing Maps, showing that the growing grid architecture performs significantly superior on the action recognition tasks.     

Neural correlates of three cognitive processes involved in theory of mind and discourse comprehension

Neuroimaging studies have found that theory of mind (ToM) and discourse comprehension involve similar brain regions. These brain regions may be associated with three cognitive components that are necessarily or frequently involved in ToM and discourse comprehension, including social concept representation and retrieval, domain-general semantic integration, and domain-specific integration of social semantic contents. Using fMRI, we investigated the neural correlates of these three cognitive components by exploring how discourse topic (social/nonsocial) and discourse processing period (ending/beginning) modulate brain activation in a discourse comprehension (and also ToM) task. Different sets of brain areas showed sensitivity to discourse topic, discourse processing period, and the interaction between them, respectively. The most novel finding was that the right temporoparietal junction and middle temporal gyrus showed sensitivity to discourse processing period only during social discourse comprehension, indicating that they selectively contribute to domain-specific semantic integration. Our finding indicates how different domains of semantic information are processed and integrated in the brain and provides new insights into the neural correlates of ToM and discourse comprehension.     

亲社会行为的认知过程及脑神经基础

亲社会行为是指有利于他人和社会的行为,包括合作、分享、助人、安慰等。亲社会行为产生主要涉及几种认知过程:对他人行为和情绪的注意、社会信息加工、对结果的奖赏预期、社会规范表征、自我控制、以及社会信息整合与价值计算等。基于这些认知过程,研究发现,亲社会行为主要与前脑岛和前扣带回、默认网络背内侧子系统、奖赏系统以及前额叶皮层等神经区域有关,因此提出亲社会行为共同的认知-脑神经回路。未来可以对亲社会行为脑神经基础的共性、功能连接以及跨文化研究等方面做进一步探讨。     

社会交流中人际神经同步的认知机制

近年来,许多研究者开始关注社会交流中的人际神经同步机制,并将人际神经同步作为研究社会交流的一个神经指标,这对于揭示社会交流的本质和规律具有重要意义。本文从心理理论和镜像神经系统的角度,分析社会交流中神经同步的认知机制及其影响因素。未来的研究应关注这两套机制是否因交流目的、对象、形式或内容的不同,而在不同的脑区表现出神经同步,进而引发了不同认知机制的争议;以及这两套机制各自或协同工作适用的情景和任务。     

A computational model of perception and action for cognitive robotics

Robots are increasingly expected to perform tasks in complex environments. To this end, engineers provide them with processing architectures that are based on models of human information processing. In contrast to traditional models, where information processing is typically set up in stages (i.e., from perception to cognition to action), it is increasingly acknowledged by psychologists and robot engineers that perception and action are parts of an interactive and integrated process. In this paper, we present HiTEC, a novel computational (cognitive) model that allows for direct interaction between perception and action as well as for cognitive control, demonstrated by task-related attentional influences. Simulation results show that key behavioral studies can be readily replicated. Three processing aspects of HiTEC are stressed for their importance for cognitive robotics: (1) ideomotor learning of action control, (2) the influence of task context and attention on perception, action planning, and learning, and (3) the interaction between perception and action planning. Implications for the design of cognitive robotics are discussed.     

视听跨通道信息的整合与冲突控制

多通道信息交互是指来自某个感觉通道的信息与另一感觉通道的信息相互作用、相互影响的一系列加工过程。主要包括两个方面：一是不同感觉通道的输入如何整合;二是跨通道信息的冲突控制。本文综述了视听跨通道信息整合与冲突控制的行为心理机制和神经机制,探讨了注意对视听信息整合与冲突控制的影响。未来需探究视听跨通道信息加工的脑网络机制,考察特殊群体的跨通道整合和冲突控制以帮助揭示其认知和社会功能障碍的机制。     

从“变色龙效应”到“镜像神经元”再到“模仿过多症”—— 作为社会交流产物的人类无意识模仿

人类无意识模仿是指人们在社会交流时会相互无意识地模仿对方的一些动作、表情和行为方式。其在个体社会认知以及人际交流上扮演着重要的角色。通过回顾近十年来人类无意识模仿的各个领域内的研究进展, 以及分析无意识模仿的行为学效应, 脑神经机制以及病理学调控, 可以得出如下结论：所有神经层面以及行为层面的人类无意识模仿现象都是社会交流的产物。该观点在澄清无意识模仿神经机制以及促进幼儿社会认知发展方面具有一定启示意义, 而探索孤独症患者无意识模仿障碍的病理机制有望为该领域的未来研究开启新的方向。