Social influence modulates the neural computation of value

Social influence--individuals' tendency to conform to the beliefs and attitudes of others--has interested psychologists for decades. However, it has traditionally been difficult to distinguish true modification of attitudes from mere public compliance with social norms; this study addressed this challenge using functional neuroimaging. Participants rated the attractiveness of faces and subsequently learned how their peers ostensibly rated each face. Participants were then scanned using functional MRI while they rated each face a second time. The second ratings were influenced by social norms: Participants changed their ratings to conform to those of their peers. This social influence was accompanied by modulated engagement of two brain regions associated with coding subjective value--the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex--a finding suggesting that exposure to social norms affected participants' neural representations of value assigned to stimuli. These findings document the utility of neuroimaging to demonstrate the private acceptance of social norms.     

Blood lead (Pb) levels: a potential environmental mechanism explaining the relation between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular reactivity in children.

OBJECTIVE: A number of studies have shown an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress. In addition, the authors recently reported that higher early childhood blood lead (Pb) levels are associated with significantly greater total peripheral (vascular) resistance (TPR) responses to acute stress. It is not known whether the SES-TPR association is mediated by underlying differences in blood lead levels. DESIGN: Participants were 9.5-year-old children (N=122) with established early childhood blood lead levels. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Family SES was measured using the Hollingshead Index, blood lead levels were abstracted from pediatrician and state records, and children's cardiovascular responses to acute stressors were measured in the laboratory with impedance cardiography and an automated blood pressure monitor. RESULTS: Lower family SES was shown to be associated with significantly higher blood lead levels as well as significantly heightened systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and TPR responses to acute stress tasks. A mediational analysis confirmed that Pb was a significant mediator of the SES-TPR reactivity association; some evidence also suggested moderation. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the importance of considering the chemical environment as well as social and psychological environment when evaluating cardiovascular effects of low SES.     

Beyond the right hemisphere: brain mechanisms mediating vocal emotional processing

Vocal perception is particularly important for understanding a speaker's emotional state and intentions because, unlike facial perception, it is relatively independent of speaker distance and viewing conditions. The idea, derived from brain lesion studies, that vocal emotional comprehension is a special domain of the right hemisphere has failed to receive consistent support from neuroimaging. This conflict can be reconciled if vocal emotional comprehension is viewed as a multi-step process with individual neural representations. This view reveals a processing chain that proceeds from the ventral auditory pathway to brain structures implicated in cognition and emotion. Thus, vocal emotional comprehension appears to be mediated by bilateral mechanisms anchored within sensory, cognitive and emotional processing systems.     

Lateralization of prosody during language production: a lesion study

To examine brain lateralization of prosody during speech, the sentence production of six right-hemisphere-lesion patients and five left-hemisphere-lesion patients was compared to that of seven normal controls using a question-answer paradigm. The task required the prosodic realization of two different syntactic structures under conditions of wide and narrow focus. Acoustical analyses were carried out on F0 and time structure. These analyses revealed a preserved ability in patients to express differences in syntactic structure via prosody. However, there were deficits in distinguishing narrow focus from wide focus. Whereas both right- and left-hemisphere lesions caused impairments in the realization of F0, time structure was mainly impaired in left-hemisphere patients. Therefore, the present results from language production support functional as well as cue-dependent hypotheses of the lateralization of prosodic processing in the brain.     

The Role of Network Support and Interference in Women's Perception of Romantic,Friend, and Parental Relationships

This study examined the association between support/interference from the best friend and closest parent to women's (a) satisfaction with the parent–daughter relationship, (b) satisfaction with the friendship, and (c) love for the romantic partner. The respondents (n = 162 females; 84% Caucasian, 1% Asian American, 10% Hispanic, 4% African American, and 1% Multiracial) completed a questionnaire packet to assess each of the factors. Results revealed that romantic love was unrelated to friend support, friend interference, or parental interference, but positively related to parental support. Parent support was a significant correlate of parent satisfaction, and a similar pattern emerged between friend support/friendship satisfaction. Further, best friend support moderated the relationship between friend interference and friendship satisfaction, such that interference was negatively related to satisfaction in low support conditions. Overall, the results suggested that network reactions to romance played a limited role in romantic affection, but were more strongly associated with network satisfaction.     

Lifting the Mantle of Protection from Weber’s Presuppositions in His Theory of Bureaucracy

Early reactions to the publication of Harold Garfinkel??s Studies in Ethnomethodology, which have persisted over the passing decades, was that ethnomethodology could not address what sociology deemed to be socially significant matters such as ??power?? and ??the state??. This, however, is not the case. How such matters enter into the practical everyday affairs of members is of equal interest to ethnomethodology when compared to how any matter enters into members?? everyday life, and how they display that. It just does not have more importance. Egon Bittner spelt this out with regard to Weber??s interest in bureaucracy when he reminds sociology that when Weber talked about efficiency he was not referring to an objective standard but as something that is attuned to practical interests as they emerge in the context of everyday life. This paper examines some of the actions and interactions that were encountered in a Governmental Department in one of the European countries. It makes visible how characterisations of bureaucracy such as ??rational??, and ??efficient?? are achieved in the actions and interactions of Department employees, and some of the practices involved in that achievement. Garfinkel, and ethnomethodology in general, are not, in principle, to be found wanting where matters of overarching, primordial interest to sociology are concerned.     

The right touch: Stroking of CT-innervated skin promotes vocal emotion processing

Research has revealed a special mechanoreceptor, called C-tactile (CT) afferent, that is situated in hairy skin and that seems relevant for the processing of social touch. We pursued a possible role of this receptor in the perception of other social signals such as a person’s voice. Participants completed three sessions in which they heard surprised and neutral vocal and nonvocal sounds and detected rare sound repetitions. In a given session, participants received no touch or soft brushstrokes to the arm (CT innervated) or palm (CT free). Event-related potentials elicited to sounds revealed that stroking to the arm facilitated the integration of vocal and emotional information. The late positive potential was greater for surprised vocal relative to neutral vocal and nonvocal sounds, and this effect was greater for arm touch relative to both palm touch and no touch. Together, these results indicate that stroking to the arm facilitates the allocation of processing resources to emotional voices, thus supporting the possibility that CT stimulation benefits social perception cross-modally.