Social neuroscience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Collective cooperation is found across many social and biological systems. Here, the authors find that infrequent hub updates promote the emergence of collective cooperation and develop an algorithm that optimises collective cooperation with update rates.

    • Yao Meng
    • , Sean P. Cornelius
    •  & Aming Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How do people predict other’s actions? Behaviour is driven by both internal mental state and external situational factors. Here, the authors use fMRI to demonstrate that actions are linked to these factors: when people think about states and situations, they average over the representations of the actions they afford.

    • Mark A. Thornton
    •  & Diana I. Tamir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Receiving a favour may induce a feeling of indebtedness in a beneficiary. Here, the authors develop and validate a model that captures the psychological, computational, and neural bases of how indebtedness arises and influences reciprocity behaviour.

    • Xiaoxue Gao
    • , Eshin Jolly
    •  & Luke J. Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social learning through observing conspecifics can facilitate the acquisition of behaviors. Here, the authors show in Mongolian gerbils that auditory cortex is necessary for social learning of an auditory discrimination task, and that social exposure improves neuronal coding of auditory task cues.

    • Nihaad Paraouty
    • , Justin D. Yao
    •  & Dan H. Sanes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How our ability to infer the cognitive and emotional states of other people manifests in both neural activity and real-world social behavior is not fully understood. Here, the authors show neural activation patterns in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus during a social inference task predict the number of social contacts in both neurotypical and autism groups.

    • Anita Tusche
    • , Robert P. Spunt
    •  & Ralph Adolphs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In observational contextual fear conditioning (OCFC), animals learn to fear the context in which they witnessed a demonstrator’s aversive experience. Here, the authors show that recall of OCFC relies on different brain areas, depending on recency of the experience and the observer’s current context.

    • Joseph I. Terranova
    • , Jun Yokose
    •  & Takashi Kitamura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observational fear is accompanied by both freezing and escape behavior in rodents. Here, the authors show that ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) inhibition disrupts escape behavior specifically, and that vmPFC neural activity represents intermingled information of other- and self-states.

    • Ziyan Huang
    • , Myung Chung
    •  & Teruhiro Okuyama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How we juggle morally conflicting outcomes during learning remains unknown. Here, by comparing variants of reinforcement learning models, the authors show that participants differ substantially in their preference, with some choosing actions that benefit themselves while others choose actions that prevent harm.

    • Laura Fornari
    • , Kalliopi Ioumpa
    •  & Valeria Gazzola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animal studies have shown that pregnancy is associated with unique changes in the mammalian brain and behaviour, although pregnancy-associated changes in the human brain are less well studied. Here the authors show that pregnancy is associated with changes in resting state brain activity and brain anatomy which are most pronounced in the default mode network.

    • Elseline Hoekzema
    • , Henk van Steenbergen
    •  & Eveline A. Crone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social interaction involves processing semantic and emotional information. Here the authors show that in the macaque monkey lateral and superior temporal sulcus, cortical activity is enhanced in response to species-specific vocalisations predicted by matching face or social visual stimuli but inhibited when vocalisations are incongruent with the predictive visual context.

    • Mathilda Froesel
    • , Maëva Gacoin
    •  & Suliann Ben Hamed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Convergent processing of external stimuli may contribute to social connectedness. Here the authors show that people with high in-degree centrality in a social network have similar neural responses to their peers and to each other and that less-central individuals have idiosyncratic responses.

    • Elisa C. Baek
    • , Ryan Hyon
    •  & Carolyn Parkinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors present MRI hardware and an image-processing pipeline for simultaneous functional imaging of two marmosets within the same scanner, removing the confounds of remote hyperscanning.

    • Kyle M. Gilbert
    • , Justine C. Cléry
    •  & Stefan Everling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social interactions require monitoring others’ actions to optimally organise one’s own actions. Here, the authors show that the pathway from the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) to the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is causally involved in monitoring observed, but not executed, actions.

    • Taihei Ninomiya
    • , Atsushi Noritake
    •  & Masaki Isoda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rhesus macaque is an important model species in several branches of science, but the utility of this model would be enhanced by the ability to measure behaviour throughout pose. Here, the authors describe a deep learning-based markerless motion capture system for estimating 3D pose in freely moving macaques.

    • Praneet C. Bala
    • , Benjamin R. Eisenreich
    •  & Jan Zimmermann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Working in military structures implies a reduction in individual autonomy, in which agents must comply with hierarchical orders. Here, the authors show that working within such a structure is associated with a reduced sense of agency and outcome processing for junior cadets, but this relationship is absent in trained officers.

    • Emilie A. Caspar
    • , Salvatore Lo Bue
    •  & Axel Cleeremans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The human brain can simulate other people’s mental processes with Self-specific and Other-specific neural circuits, but it is not known how these circuits emerge. Here, the authors show that these circuits adapt to social experience, to determine whether a computation is attributed to Self or Other.

    • Sam Ereira
    • , Tobias U. Hauser
    •  & Zeb Kurth-Nelson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The roots of psychopathology take shape during adverse parent-infant interactions, shown through infant attachment quality. Using rodents, the authors show that blunted infant cortical processing of the mother determines attachment quality through a stress hormone-dependent mechanism.

    • Maya Opendak
    • , Emma Theisen
    •  & Regina M. Sullivan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neuronal populations in the temporal cortex fire show increased activity in response to face stimuli. Here, the authors show using human intracranial recordings that face perception involves anatomically discrete but temporally distributed response profiles in the human ventral temporal cortex.

    • Jessica Schrouff
    • , Omri Raccah
    •  & Josef Parvizi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    People can experience a wide variety of emotions, and how the brain represents these varying affective states is a matter of debate. Here the authors show that coding mechanisms of emotions in right temporo-parietal cortex resemble those of low-level stimulus features in primary sensory regions.

    • Giada Lettieri
    • , Giacomo Handjaras
    •  & Luca Cecchetti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The brain mechanisms underlying cooperation within groups, while balancing individual and collective interests, are poorly understood. Here, the authors identify the neurocomputations engaged in social dilemmas requiring strategic decisions during repeated social interactions in groups.

    • Seongmin A. Park
    • , Mariateresa Sestito
    •  & Jean-Claude Dreher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We tend to be more trusting of people who we know to be honest. Here, the authors show using fMRI that honesty-based trustworthiness is represented in the posterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus, and predicts subsequent trust decisions.

    • Gabriele Bellucci
    • , Felix Molter
    •  & Soyoung Q. Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social life requires us to store information about each person’s unique disposition. Here, the authors show that the brain represents people as the sums of the mental states that those people are believed to experience.

    • Mark A. Thornton
    • , Miriam E. Weaverdyck
    •  & Diana I. Tamir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The brain can represent the mental states of others, as well as those of the self. Here, the authors show that social brain manifests more distinct activity patterns when thinking about one's own states, compared to those of others, suggesting that we represent our own mind with greater granularity.

    • Mark A. Thornton
    • , Miriam E. Weaverdyck
    •  & Diana I. Tamir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    People’s early experiences and dispositions influence their ability to show and feel empathy. Here, using a sample of children exposed to war-related trauma, the authors examine how parenting, temperament, anxiety, and adversity affect the maturation of neural responses associated with empathy.

    • Jonathan Levy
    • , Abraham Goldstein
    •  & Ruth Feldman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show that individuals apply different ‘moral strategies’ in interpersonal decision-making. These strategies are linked to distinct patterns of neural activity, even when they produce the same choice outcomes, illuminating how distinct moral principles can guide social behavior.

    • Jeroen M. van Baar
    • , Luke J. Chang
    •  & Alan G. Sanfey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter involved in reproductive and social behavior, but the role of oxytocin-related genes in the human brain remains unclear. Here, the authors map oxytocin pathway gene expression and show that it overlaps with brain regions involved in reward and emotional states.

    • Daniel S. Quintana
    • , Jaroslav Rokicki
    •  & Lars T. Westlye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although the CA2 region of the hippocampus has been implicated in social memory, its precise role has been unclear. Here, the authors show that the dorsal subregion of CA2 is required for the encoding, consolidation and recall of social memory through a circuit linking it to ventral CA1.

    • Torcato Meira
    • , Felix Leroy
    •  & Steven A. Siegelbaum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Loneliness markedly increases mortality and morbidity, yet the factors triggering loneliness remain largely unknown. This study shows that sleep loss leads to a neurobehavioral phenotype of human social separation and loneliness, one that is transmittable to non-sleep-deprived individuals.

    • Eti Ben Simon
    •  & Matthew P. Walker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong positive and strong negative reciprocators reward cooperation and punish defection, respectively, regardless of future benefits. Here, Weber and colleagues demonstrate that dispositions towards strong positive and strong negative reciprocity are not correlated within individuals.

    • Till O. Weber
    • , Ori Weisel
    •  & Simon Gächter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though adults’ brains process the internal states of others’ bodies versus others’ minds in distinct brain regions, it is not clear when this functional dissociation emerges. Here, authors study 3–12 year olds and show that these networks are distinct by age 3 and become even more distinct with age.

    • Hilary Richardson
    • , Grace Lisandrelli
    •  & Rebecca Saxe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though we are often friends with people similar to ourselves, it is unclear if neural responses to perceptual stimuli are also similar. Here, authors show that the similarity of neural responses evoked by a range of videos was highest for close friends and decreased with increasing social distance.

    • Carolyn Parkinson
    • , Adam M. Kleinbaum
    •  & Thalia Wheatley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though it's important to influence others' decisions, the neural correlates of persuasive strategies are not known. Here, authors show that people change their advice based on its accuracy and whether they are being listened to, and identify the distinct brain regions underpinning each strategy.

    • Uri Hertz
    • , Stefano Palminteri
    •  & Bahador Bahrami

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While oxytocin is known to be critical for social recognition, the functions of oxytocin receptors (Oxtrs) in the hippocampus are not known. This study shows that Oxtrs in anterior dentate gyrus and CA2/CA3 pyramidal cells recruit population-based coding to mediate discrimination of social stimuli.

    • Tara Raam
    • , Kathleen M. McAvoy
    •  & Amar Sahay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generous behaviour increases happiness, but the neural underpinnings of this link are unknown. Here, authors show that promising to be generous changes the neural response in the temporo-parietal junction, and that the connection between this region and the ventral striatum was related to happiness.

    • Soyoung Q. Park
    • , Thorsten Kahnt
    •  & Philippe N. Tobler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though humans often learn about negative outcomes from observing the response of others, the neurochemistry underlying this learning is unknown. Here, authors show that blocking opioid receptors enhances social threat learning and describe the brain regions underlying this effect.

    • Jan Haaker
    • , Jonathan Yi
    •  & Andreas Olsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At age 4, children start understanding other peoples' false beliefs, but the related neuroanatomical changes are unknown. Here, authors show that false belief understanding is associated with age-related changes in white matter structure, and that this effect is independent of other cognitive abilities.

    • Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann
    • , Jan Schreiber
    •  & Angela D. Friederici

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Black individuals are racially stereotyped as threatening but how bodily signals may affect these misperceptions is not known. Here Azevedo and colleagues show that these race-driven responses are affected by the cardiac cycle, being more biased when arterial baroreceptor activation is maximal.

    • Ruben T. Azevedo
    • , Sarah N. Garfinkel
    •  & Manos Tsakiris

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