社会从众的生物学基础

社会从众是指个体改变态度或行为, 与他人保持一致的现象。社会认知神经科学采用社会心理学的实验范式研究发现：背内侧前额叶、纹状体、眶额皮层、脑岛、杏仁核和海马等多个脑区在社会从众中扮演重要角色; 能够提高多巴胺水平、改善大脑奖赏敏感性的某些神经递质可能间接影响从众。强化学习理论的奖惩预期可以部分解释社会从众的原因。未来研究应改进实验范式, 扩大研究群体, 借助神经、生化技术, 利用动物模型, 深入探讨社会从众的神经生物学基础。

The Neurobiological Mechanisms of Social Conformity

People often change their opinion and behavior to conform to others. Recent studies in social neuroscience, using social psychological theories and experimental paradigms, have begun to elucidate the underlying neurobiological bases of social conformity. Neuroimaging studies show that brain areas, such as medial prefrontal cortex, striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, amygdala, and hippocampus, play key roles in social conformity and cognitive imbalance. Evidences from the molecular genetic studies show that some genetic factors, such as the COMT gene, oxytocin, and Methylphenidate can enhance reward saliency by increasing dopamine in the brain, thus indirectly modulating social conformity. These reward-based reinforcement-learning mechanisms can explain social conformity. Future studies need to adapt an experimental paradigm to include more diverse populations, such as adolescents and elderly samples as well as patients with various psychopathology and brain lesions. It would also be promising to integrate different methodologies to clarify the neurobiological basis of social conformity.