Social neuroscience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Humans can learn alone or by watching others, strategies which may depend on similar or different neural networks. This study shows that people watching other players in a card game used computations in neurons of their rostral anterior cingulate cortex to learn through observation.

    • Michael R. Hill
    • , Erie D. Boorman
    •  & Itzhak Fried

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Comparing oneself to others is inherently human but exactly how social comparison affects one's emotional state is unclear. Here the authors demonstrate that unequal social outcomes decrease happiness and these emotional impacts are proportional to individual levels of generosity.

    • Robb B. Rutledge
    • , Archy O. de Berker
    •  & Raymond J. Dolan

  • Article |

    Physical pain and social rejection are believed to be processed by common neural substrates in the brain. Here Woo et al.combine brain imaging with pattern analysis to show that, in fact, pain and rejection are processed by distinct neural substrates that are located in similar anatomical brain regions.

    • Choong-Wan Woo
    • , Leonie Koban
    •  & Tor D. Wager

  • Article |

    It is generally assumed that a person’s cooperative behaviour is consistent, but direct evidence is lacking. Here, the authors show consistent patterns of an individual’s behaviour both in different cooperation games and through time, suggesting that an individual's cooperative behaviour is general and stable.

    • Alexander Peysakhovich
    • , Martin A. Nowak
    •  & David G. Rand

  • Article |

    The evolutionary foundation of human prosociality remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that extensive allomaternal care is the best predictor of prosocial behaviour among 15 primate species, including humans, which suggests that prosocial motivations arise along with cooperative breeding.

    • J. M. Burkart
    • , O. Allon
    •  & C. P. van Schaik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Encephalographic brain recordings are often used to characterize neuronal dynamics at the network level in relation to specific behaviours. Here, Dmochowski et al. show that neural activity from a few individuals viewing popular media can predict population-level neural activity in thousands of individuals.

    • Jacek P. Dmochowski
    • , Matthew A. Bezdek
    •  & Lucas C. Parra

  • Article |

    Connectivity between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala (AMY) is implicated in responses to stress and regulation of affect. Here, the authors show that stress is regulated by changes in PFC–AMY coherence, PFC oscillatory activity and AMY oscillatory activity across the 2–7 Hz frequency band.

    • Sunil Kumar
    • , Rainbo Hultman
    •  & Kafui Dzirasa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social intelligence requires the understanding of third-party relations, which is known to occur in humans and primates. Here, Massen et al.show that ravens respond differently to sound recordings of dominance interactions between other ravens, suggesting that ravens also understand third-party relations.

    • Jorg J. M. Massen
    • , Andrius Pašukonis
    •  & Thomas Bugnyar

  • Article |

    Whether or not intuition favours cooperative decision making has been controversial. Rand et al.carry out a meta-analysis of 15 studies involving volunteers playing economic games, and confirm a role for intuition in cooperation, which varies according to the volunteers’ previous experience with similar games.

    • David G. Rand
    • , Alexander Peysakhovich
    •  & Joshua D. Greene

  • Article |

    Social learning is crucial to the evolutionary success of humans. Here, the authors evaluate social learning strategies in a sample of human subjects and find that some individuals imitate the behaviours of their most successful peers, while others conform to the behaviour of the majority.

    • Lucas Molleman
    • , Pieter van den Berg
    •  & Franz J. Weissing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Human neuronal activity during cognitive processing is usually studied under experimental conditions but activity under natural conditions is poorly understood. Here the authors develop a method to accurately characterize the activity of the same neuronal population under both conditions.

    • Mohammad Dastjerdi
    • , Muge Ozker
    •  & Josef Parvizi

  • Article |

    Quantification of the behavioural phenotype of animals within a group requires simultaneous position and identity tracking of multiple individuals. Here the authors report an automated tracking system that combines video- and RFID-tracking data and allows behavioural phenotyping of uniquely identified group-living animals.

    • Aharon Weissbrod
    • , Alexander Shapiro
    •  & Tali Kimchi

  • Article |

    Humans routinely socially evaluate other people based on interactions between third parties. Anderson and colleagues show that capuchin monkeys also negatively evaluate humans who explicitly refuse to help others.

    • James R. Anderson
    • , Hika Kuroshima
    •  & Kazuo Fujita

  • Article |

    The ability to delay gratification in childhood correlates with the ability to exert self-control in adulthood. Berman and colleagues re-examine individuals that were studied 40 years ago and find that the individuals who are able to exert a high level of self-control have more efficient neural networks.

    • Marc G. Berman
    • , Grigori Yourganov
    •  & John Jonides

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tuberous sclerosis complex is an autosomal dominant cognitive disorder caused by mutations affecting TSCgenes. Sato and colleagues examine tuberous sclerosis complex mutant mice and find that the behavioural and anatomical abnormalities can be reversed by inhibiting rapamycin-sensitive signalling pathways, even in adulthood.

    • Atsushi Sato
    • , Shinya Kasai
    •  & Masashi Mizuguchi

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