Social groups that elicit disgust are differentially processed in mPFC - PubMed (original) (raw)

Social groups that elicit disgust are differentially processed in mPFC

Lasana T Harris et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007 Mar.

Abstract

Social neuroscience suggests medial pre-frontal cortex (mPFC) as necessary for social cognition. However, the mPFC activates less to members of extreme outgroups that elicit disgust, an emotion directed toward both people and objects. This study aimed to counteract that effect. Participants made either superficial categorical age estimations or individuating food-preference judgments about people, while fMRI recorded neural activity. Besides replicating the reduced mPFC activity to extreme outgroups that elicit disgust, this study demonstrates that the same type of judgment for these individuals is processed in a region anatomically distinct from social groups that elicit exclusively social emotions (pity, envy, pride). Finally, inferring individuating information (food preferences) increases mPFC activation above superficial categorical judgments. This evidence fits differentiated mPFC processing of extreme outgroups, which activate mPFC less than other groups, but suggests that individuation increases activation.

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Figures

Fig. 1

Fig. 1

The emotions that result from the interaction of competence and warmth in the Stereotype Content Model. Pride, envy and pity are the three exclusively social emotions, while disgust is the non-exclusively social emotion.

Fig. 2

Fig. 2

Ventral and dorsal distinction in the mPFC for the task main effect. Greater activity when subjects performed the individuation task than the categorization task. (a) Sagittal slice showing more dorsal mPFC activation at x = −8, y = 51, z = 23. (b) Sagittal slice showing more ventral mPFC activation at x = 2, y = 56, z = 12. (c) Coronal slice showing both the more dorsal (blue) and more ventral (green) mPFC activations.

Fig. 3

Fig. 3

Task simple effects mPFC activations. (a) mPFC activation greater for vegetable preference judgments than categorical age judgments for NS social group members. The area in orange shows the mPFC activation for this simple effect, while the area in blue shows the dorsal mPFC activation for the task main effect. (b) mPFC activation greater for vegetable preference judgments than categorical age judgments for SE social group members. The area in orange shows the mPFC activation for this simple effect, while the area in green shows the ventral mPFC activation for the task main effect.

Fig. 4

Fig. 4

Greater activity to groups that elicit exclusively social emotions (SE) than to groups that elicit non-exclusively social emotions (NS). Yellow circle: Harris & Fiske, , Psych. Sci., mPFC activation to exclusive social emotion groups compared to fixation at x = −9, y = 50, z = −2. Red circle: Present study mPFC activation to exclusive social emotion groups compared to non-exclusive social emotion groups at x = 0, y = 38, z = −1.

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