Is gender primacy universal?

Emerging evidence suggests that gender is a defining feature of personhood. Studies show that gender is the primary social category individuals use to perceive humanness and the social category most strongly related to seeing someone-or something-as human. However, the universality of gender's primacy in social perception and its precedence over other social categories like race and age have been debated. We examined the primacy of gender perception in the Mayangna community of Nicaragua, a population with minimal exposure to Western influences, to test whether the primacy of gender categorization in humanization is more likely to be a culturally specific construct or a cross-cultural and potentially universal phenomenon. Consistent with findings from North American populations [A. E. Martin, M. F. Mason, J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 123, 292-315 (2022)], the Mayangna ascribed gender to nonhuman objects more strongly than any other social category-including age, race, sexual orientation, disability, and religion-and gender was the only social category that uniquely predicted perceived humanness (i.e., the extent to which a nonhuman entity was seen as "human"). This pattern persisted even in the most isolated subgroup of the sample, who had no exposure to Western culture or media. The present results thus suggest that gender's primacy in social cognition is a widely generalizable, and potentially universal, phenomenon.

Seeing and understanding epistemic actions.

Many actions have instrumental aims, in which we move our bodies to achieve a physical outcome in the environment. However, we also perform actions with epistemic aims, in which we move our bodies to acquire information and learn about the world. A large literature on action recognition investigates how observers represent and understand the former class of actions; but what about the latter class? Can one person tell, just by observing another person's movements, what they are trying to learn? Here, five experiments explore epistemic action understanding. We filmed volunteers playing a "physics game" consisting of two rounds: Players shook an opaque box and attempted to determine i) the number of objects hidden inside, or ii) the shape of the objects inside. Then, independent subjects watched these videos and were asked to determine which videos came from which round: Who was shaking for number and who was shaking for shape? Across several variations, observers successfully determined what an actor was trying to learn, based only on their actions (i.e., how they shook the box)-even when the box's contents were identical across rounds. These results demonstrate that humans can infer epistemic intent from physical behaviors, adding a new dimension to research on action understanding.

Category-Selective Representation of Relationships in the Visual Cortex.

Understanding social interaction requires processing social agents and their relationships. The latest results show that much of this process is visually solved: visual areas can represent multiple people encoding emergent information about their interaction that is not explained by the response to the individuals alone. A neural signature of this process is an increased response in visual areas, to face-to-face (seemingly interacting) people, relative to people presented as unrelated (back-to-back). This effect highlighted a network of visual areas for representing relational information. How is this network organized? Using functional MRI, we measured the brain activity of healthy female and male humans (N = 42), in response to images of two faces or two (head-blurred) bodies, facing toward or away from each other. Taking the facing > non-facing effect as a signature of relation perception, we found that relations between faces and between bodies were coded in distinct areas, mirroring the categorical representation of faces and bodies in the visual cortex. Additional analyses suggest the existence of a third network encoding relations between (nonsocial) objects. Finally, a separate occipitotemporal network showed the generalization of relational information across body, face, and nonsocial object dyads (multivariate pattern classification analysis), revealing shared properties of relations across categories. In sum, beyond single entities, the visual cortex encodes the relations that bind multiple entities into relationships; it does so in a category-selective fashion, thus respecting a general organizing principle of representation in high-level vision. Visual areas encoding visual relational information can reveal the processing of emergent properties of social (and nonsocial) interaction, which trigger inferential processes.

Neural Representations of Observed Interpersonal Synchrony/Asynchrony in the Social Perception Network.

The visual perception of individuals is thought to be mediated by a network of regions in the occipitotemporal cortex that supports specialized processing of faces, bodies, and actions. In comparison, we know relatively little about the neural mechanisms that support the perception of multiple individuals and the interactions between them. The present study sought to elucidate the visual processing of social interactions by identifying which regions of the social perception network represent interpersonal synchrony. In an fMRI study with 32 human participants (26 female, 6 male), we used multivoxel pattern analysis to investigate whether activity in face-selective, body-selective, and interaction-sensitive regions across the social perception network supports the decoding of synchronous versus asynchronous head-nodding and head-shaking. Several regions were found to support significant decoding of synchrony/asynchrony, including extrastriate body area (EBA), face-selective and interaction-sensitive mid/posterior right superior temporal sulcus, and occipital face area. We also saw robust cross-classification across actions in the EBA, suggestive of movement-invariant representations of synchrony/asynchrony. Exploratory whole-brain analyses also identified a region of the right fusiform cortex that responded more strongly to synchronous than to asynchronous motion. Critically, perceiving interpersonal synchrony/asynchrony requires the simultaneous extraction and integration of dynamic information from more than one person. Hence, the representation of synchrony/asynchrony cannot be attributed to augmented or additive processing of individual actors. Our findings therefore provide important new evidence that social interactions recruit dedicated visual processing within the social perception network that extends beyond that engaged by the faces and bodies of the constituent individuals.

Identifying interindividual variability of social perception and associated brain anatomical correlations in children with autism spectrum disorder using eye-tracking and diffusion tensor imaging MRI (DTI-MRI).

Even though deficits in social cognition constitute a core characteristic of autism spectrum disorders, a large heterogeneity exists regarding individual social performances and its neural basis remains poorly investigated. Here, we used eye-tracking to objectively measure interindividual variability in social perception and its correlation with white matter microstructure, measured with diffusion tensor imaging MRI, in 25 children with autism spectrum disorder (8.5 ± 3.8 years). Beyond confirming deficits in social perception in participants with autism spectrum disorder compared 24 typically developing controls (10.5 ± 2.9 years), results revealed a large interindividual variability of such behavior among individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Whole-brain analysis showed in both autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups a positive correlation between number of fixations to the eyes and fractional anisotropy values mainly in right and left superior longitudinal tracts. In children with autism spectrum disorder a correlation was also observed in right and left inferior longitudinal tracts. Importantly, a significant interaction between group and number of fixations to the eyes was observed within the anterior portion of the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus, mainly in the right anterior temporal region. This additional correlation in a supplementary region suggests the existence of a compensatory brain mechanism, which may support enhanced performance in social perception among children with autism spectrum disorder.

The Neuroscience of Human and Artificial Intelligence Presence.

Two decades of social neuroscience and neuroeconomics research illustrate the brain mechanisms that are engaged when people consider human beings, often in comparison to considering artificial intelligence (AI) as a nonhuman control. AI as an experimental control preserves agency and facilitates social interactions but lacks a human presence, providing insight into brain mechanisms that are engaged by human presence and the presence of AI. Here, I review this literature to determine how the brain instantiates human and AI presence across social perception and decision-making paradigms commonly used to realize a social context. People behave toward humans differently than they do toward AI. Moreover, brain regions more engaged by humans compared to AI extend beyond the social cognition brain network to all parts of the brain, and the brain sometimes is engaged more by AI than by humans. Finally, I discuss gaps in the literature, limitations in current neuroscience approaches, and how an understanding of the brain correlates of human and AI presence can inform social science in the wild.

Neural representations of others' traits predict social decisions.

To guide social interaction, people often rely on expectations about the traits of other people, based on markers of social group membership (i.e., stereotypes). Although the influence of stereotypes on social behavior is widespread, key questions remain about how traits inferred from social-group membership are instantiated in the brain and incorporated into neural computations that guide social behavior. Here, we show that the human lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) represents the content of stereotypes about members of different social groups in the service of social decision-making. During functional MRI scanning, participants decided how to distribute resources across themselves and members of a variety of social groups in a modified Dictator Game. Behaviorally, we replicated our recent finding that inferences about others' traits, captured by a two-dimensional framework of stereotype content (warmth and competence), had dissociable effects on participants' monetary-allocation choices: recipients' warmth increased participants' aversion to advantageous inequity (i.e., earning more than recipients), and recipients' competence increased participants' aversion to disadvantageous inequity (i.e., earning less than recipients). Neurally, representational similarity analysis revealed that others' traits in the two-dimensional space were represented in the temporoparietal junction and superior temporal sulcus, two regions associated with mentalizing, and in the lateral OFC, known to represent inferred features of a decision context outside the social domain. Critically, only the latter predicted individual choices, suggesting that the effect of stereotypes on behavior is mediated by inference-based decision-making processes in the OFC.

Minority salience and the overestimation of individuals from minority groups in perception and memory.

Our cognitive system is tuned toward spotting the uncommon and unexpected. We propose that individuals coming from minority groups are, by definition, just that­uncommon and often unexpected. Consequently, they are psychologically salient in perception, memory, and visual awareness. This minority salience creates a tendency to overestimate the prevalence of minorities, leading to an erroneous picture of our social environments­an illusion of diversity. In 12 experiments with 942 participants, we found evidence that the presence of minority group members is indeed overestimated in memory and perception and that masked images of minority group members are prioritized for visual awareness. These findings were consistent when participants were members of both the majority group and the minority group. Moreover, this overestimated prevalence of minorities led to decreased support for diversity-promoting policies. We discuss the theoretical implications of the illusion of diversity and how it may inform more equitable and inclusive decision-making.

Rapid Processing of Observed Touch through Social Perceptual Brain Regions: An EEG-fMRI Fusion Study.

Seeing social touch triggers a strong social-affective response that involves multiple brain networks, including visual, social perceptual, and somatosensory systems. Previous studies have identified the specific functional role of each system, but little is known about the speed and directionality of the information flow. Is this information extracted via the social perceptual system or from simulation from somatosensory cortex? To address this, we examined the spatiotemporal neural processing of observed touch. Twenty-one human participants (seven males) watched 500-ms video clips showing social and nonsocial touch during electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. Visual and social-affective features were rapidly extracted in the brain, beginning at 90 and 150 ms after video onset, respectively. Combining the EEG data with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from our prior study with the same stimuli reveals that neural information first arises in early visual cortex (EVC), then in the temporoparietal junction and posterior superior temporal sulcus (TPJ/pSTS), and finally in the somatosensory cortex. EVC and TPJ/pSTS uniquely explain EEG neural patterns, while somatosensory cortex does not contribute to EEG patterns alone, suggesting that social-affective information may flow from TPJ/pSTS to somatosensory cortex. Together, these findings show that social touch is processed quickly, within the timeframe of feedforward visual processes, and that the social-affective meaning of touch is first extracted by a social perceptual pathway. Such rapid processing of social touch may be vital to its effective use during social interaction.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Seeing physical contact between people evokes a strong social-emotional response. Previous research has identified the brain systems responsible for this response, but little is known about how quickly and in what direction the information flows. We demonstrated that the brain processes the social-emotional meaning of observed touch quickly, starting as early as 150 ms after the stimulus onset. By combining electroencephalogram (EEG) data with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, we show for the first time that the social-affective meaning of touch is first extracted by a social perceptual pathway and followed by the later involvement of somatosensory simulation. This rapid processing of touch through the social perceptual route may play a pivotal role in effective usage of touch in social communication and interaction.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceptions of social relationships, negative affect, and paranoid ideation.

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to worsening mental health across the globe. The pandemic may have been especially impactful on those experiencing heightened psychosis spectrum symptomatology given greater pre-pandemic social isolation and increased vulnerability to stress. Yet, few studies exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceptions of social relationships and mental health have sampled individuals high in psychosis spectrum symptomatology, including those with psychosis spectrum disorders. Utilizing a mixed transdiagnostic community sample enriched for psychotic spectrum disorders, this longitudinal study investigated whether perceptions of social relationships and psychiatric symptoms changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether pandemic-related impacts were associated with social perceptions and symptomatology, and whether paranoid ideation was related to perceptions of the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pandemic impacts were not uniform, with participants reporting a range of adverse impacts including poorer health-related behaviors, difficulties fulfilling basic needs, and medical related challenges. Results indicated that compared to pre-pandemic assessments, perceived rejection and hostility increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants who experienced more pandemic-related impacts reported less social support, more social distress, greater negative affect, and greater paranoid ideation. Paranoid ideation was related to more negative perceptions of the government's response to the pandemic. These findings demonstrate the importance of assessing individual differences in pandemic-related impacts and the clinical consequences of such impacts. Results also suggest that those high in paranoid ideation may be reluctant to engage in government recommended protective health behaviors to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Systematically mapping gray matter abnormal patterns in drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia from childhood to adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia originates early in neurodevelopment, underscoring the need to elaborate on anomalies in the still maturing brain of early-onset schizophrenia (EOS). METHODS: Gray matter (GM) volumes were evaluated in 94 antipsychotic-naïve first-episode EOS patients and 100 typically developing (TD) controls. The anatomical profiles of changing GM deficits in EOS were detected using 2-way analyses of variance with diagnosis and age as factors, and its timing was further charted using stage-specific group comparisons. Interregional relationships of GM alterations were established using structural covariance network analyses. RESULTS: Antagonistic interaction results suggested dynamic GM abnormalities of the left fusiform gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, and lingual gyrus in EOS. These regions comprise a dominating part of the ventral stream, a ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) network engaged in early social information processing. GM abnormalities were mainly located in the vOT regions in childhood-onset patients, whereas in the rostral prefrontal cortex (rPFC) in adolescent-onset patients. Moreover, compared with TD controls, patients' GM synchronization with the ventral stream was disrupted in widespread high-order social perception regions including the rPFC and salience network. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings reveal age-related anatomical abnormalities of the social perception system in pediatric patients with schizophrenia.

Noninvasive modulation of predictive coding in humans: causal evidence for frequency-specific temporal dynamics.

Increasing evidence indicates that the brain predicts sensory input based on past experiences, importantly constraining how we experience the world. Despite a growing interest on this framework, known as predictive coding, most of such approaches to multiple psychological domains continue to be theoretical or primarily provide correlational evidence. We here explored the neural basis of predictive processing using noninvasive brain stimulation and provide causal evidence of frequency-specific modulations in humans. Participants received 20 Hz (associated with top-down/predictions), 50 Hz (associated with bottom-up/prediction errors), or sham transcranial alternating current stimulation on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while performing a social perception task in which facial expression predictions were induced and subsequently confirmed or violated. Left prefrontal 20 Hz stimulation reinforced stereotypical predictions. In contrast, 50 Hz and sham stimulation failed to yield any significant behavioral effects. Moreover, the frequency-specific effect observed was further supported by electroencephalography data, which showed a boost of brain activity at the stimulated frequency band. These observations provide causal evidence for how predictive processing may be enabled in the human brain, setting up a needed framework to understand how it may be disrupted across brain-related conditions and potentially restored through noninvasive methods.

Recognition of others' interoceptive states in those with and without eating disorders.

BACKGROUND: The ability to recognize one's own emotions is associated with one's ability to recognize others' emotions. Beyond the domain of emotion, however, the relationship between recognition of one's own internal states (interoception) and others' interoceptive states has not been investigated, either in the typical population or clinical groups with interoceptive difficulties (e.g. eating disorders; EDs). METHOD: This study investigated recognition of one's own and others' internal states in adults with and without eating disorders, using a high frequency visual noise paradigm. Participants completed self-report measures of interoception, alexithymia (difficulties recognising one's own emotional internal states) and ED symptomatology, and the Heartbeat Counting Task measure of cardiac interoceptive accuracy. RESULTS: Alexithymia was significantly negatively correlated with recognition of others' interoceptive states. EDs were not associated with difficulties recognising others' interoceptive states. CONCLUSIONS: The ability to recognise one's own emotional internal states is associated with the recognition of others' interoceptive states, which may contribute to social skills and the ability to care for others.

Does terminology matter? Perspectives from people with limb difference, clinicians, and researchers.

OBJECTIVE: Elicit preferred terminology among people with limb difference, as well as healthcare and/or research professionals. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Online. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 122 individuals (people with limb difference n=65; healthcare and/or research professionals n=57) completed an online survey. People were included if they: 1) were 18 years of age or older, 2) self-identified as having limb difference (regardless of etiology) or as a healthcare or research professional (with experience working with people with limb difference), and 3) lived in the US for the majority of the time in their selected role. INTERVENTIONS: N/A MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Importance of terminology, preference towards person-first or identity-first terms, preferred terms, and individual perspectives on terminology preferences. RESULTS: Most participants identified as White (92.6%). Age significantly differed between groups (people with limb difference= 49.9 ± 15.4; professionals=41.0 ± 14.3; p=0.001). Fewer professionals (5.3%) reported that terminology was slightly or not at all important to them, compared to people with limb difference (approximately 30%) (χ2=16.6, p=0.002). While 73.7% of professionals reported a preference for person-first terminology, the sample of people with limb difference were more evenly split, as 42.9% reported preferences for identity-first terminology and 50.8% reported a preference for person-first terminology. The most frequently selected limb and population terms, respectively, were residual limb and individual/person with limb difference, except many people with limb difference indicated they preferred "amputee" when speaking about a population. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of participants indicated terminology was very or extremely important, and both groups tended to prefer the terms residual limb (limb term) and individual/person with limb difference (population term). However, this study does not intend to recommend terminology, but rather help inform terminology choices that are centered around people with limb difference. Individuality and context should be considered when deciding terminology. Future studies should include more participants from racially/ethnically minoritized groups, and people with limb difference who have dysvascular and/or congenital etiologies.

Sex differences in social cognition among individuals with schizophrenia and in healthy control participants: a secondary analysis of published data.

PURPOSE: Sex differences are present among individuals experiencing schizophrenia. Whether these differences extend to social cognition is unclear. In this study, we investigated sex differences in emotion perception, social perception and theory of mind (ToM). METHODS: We examined sex differences between males and females with schizophrenia on five social cognitive tests. Healthy male and female control participants were included to examine if any sex difference was illness-specific. Emotion perception was measured with Pictures of Facial Affect (PFA) and Emotion in Biological Motion (EmoBio); social perception with the Relationships Across Domains Test (RAD); and ToM with the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) and Hinting Task. RESULTS: Two-way analyses of variance revealed overall group differences for all tests, with healthy controls outperforming individuals with schizophrenia. Significant sex effects were present for PFA and Hinting Task. There were no significant interaction effects. Within-group independent samples t-tests yielded one significant sex difference, i.e., among healthy controls for PFA. CONCLUSIONS: Females had better facial emotion perception than males. This sex difference was statistically significant among healthy controls and medium-large among individuals experiencing schizophrenia. There were no significant sex differences for other social cognitive domains. The study did not find evidence for a general female advantage in social cognition.

Shared neural codes for visual and semantic information about familiar faces in a common representational space.

Processes evoked by seeing a personally familiar face encompass recognition of visual appearance and activation of social and person knowledge. Whereas visual appearance is the same for all viewers, social and person knowledge may be more idiosyncratic. Using between-subject multivariate decoding of hyperaligned functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we investigated whether representations of personally familiar faces in different parts of the distributed neural system for face perception are shared across individuals who know the same people. We found that the identities of both personally familiar and merely visually familiar faces were decoded accurately across brains in the core system for visual processing, but only the identities of personally familiar faces could be decoded across brains in the extended system for processing nonvisual information associated with faces. Our results show that personal interactions with the same individuals lead to shared neural representations of both the seen and unseen features that distinguish their identities.

Relative contributions of the face and body to social judgements: emotion, threat and status.

Do the nonverbal signals used to make social judgements differ depending on the type of judgement being made and what other nonverbal signals are visible? Experiment 1 investigated how nonverbal signals across three channels (face: angry/fearful, posture: expanded/contracted, lean: forward/backward), when viewed together, were used for judgements of emotion, threat, and status. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and explored how use of the body channels differed in making social judgements when the face channel was obscured. Both experiments found facial anger linked to high anger, threat, and status ratings; facial fear was linked to low ratings. Expanded body posture increased threat and status judgements, while backward lean decreased anger and threat. With the face channel blocked (Experiment 2B), the influence of body posture increased across emotion, threat, and status judgements, while body lean was more consistent. Findings demonstrate that despite the face's importance across types of social judgements, the body channels differentially contribute to judgements of emotion, threat and status. Further, they are differentially affected by the absence of facial information. How much face and body-related channels are used in social judgements is moderated by the type of judgement being made and the availability of other (particularly facial) channel information.

The harm hypothesis: How perceived harm to women shapes reactions to research on sex differences.

Past research suggests that reactions to research on sex differences are often less positive when the findings put men in a better light than women, especially when the lead researcher is a man. The factors underlying this effect, however, are not yet fully understood. The present study aimed to provide the first experimental test of the hypothesis that the key variable is perceived harm to women. Participants (214 men and 219 women) evaluated a bogus popular-science article reporting fictional research finding either a female- or a male-favouring sex difference in intelligence, attributed to either a female or a male lead researcher. To examine the effects of perceived harm, the introduction to the task highlighted either the potential benefits or potential drawbacks of sex-differences research in general. Consistent with past research, participants reacted less positively to the male-favouring difference, especially for male-led research. Consistent with the harm hypothesis, the effect was stronger after highlighting the potential drawbacks of sex-differences research than after highlighting the potential benefits. Our findings suggest that perceptions of harm to women underpin the aversion to male-favouring findings.

The effect of social appearance anxiety and body perception on the quality of life in burn patients.

This study was conducted with a descriptive and cross-sectional design to demonstrate the effect of social appearance anxiety and body perception on quality of life in burn patients. The study was conducted in the intensive care units and burn clinic of Elazig Firat University Hospital between 17 February 2022 and 30 April 2022. Data were collected from 94 burn patients using the Personal Information Form, Social Appearance Anxiety Scale, Body-Cathexis Scale and Quality of Life Scale-Short Form. Most participants were 30 years old and under, male, married, had no children and had an education level of high school or below. Most had social security and an income equal to their expenses. They were not uncomfortable with coming to the hospital, and 1-3 months had passed since the burn incident. They did not spend time outside, and most had no part of their bodies that they did not like, while 26.1% did not like their feet. A negative relationship was detected between the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale and Body-Cathexis Scale, and a positive relationship between the total and sub-dimensions of the Quality of Life Scale (p > 0.05). There was a negative relationship between the Body-Cathexis Scale and the Quality of Life Scale total and sub-dimensions (p < 0.05), and a positive relationship between the total and sub-dimensions of the Quality of Life Scale (p < 0.05).

The aggressive face of melasma: unveiling the influence of upper lip pigmentation on social perception.

Introduction: Although melasma leads to emotional distress and quality-of-life reduction, indigenous cultures practice female facial tattooing. Facial cues influence personality trait inferences and attractiveness ratings. Skin lesions have been shown to alter gaze patterns, emotion perception, and social evaluations. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate melasma's impact on visual attention, perceived attractiveness, and social evaluations, considering distinct anatomical areas. Additionally, we sought to compare perceptions of traditional facial tattoos due to their purposeful placement. Material and methods: Gaze fixation patterns were examined via eye-tracking, and image-based personality questionnaires were completed for psychological trait assessment. Visual stimuli showcased anatomic melasma variants and tattoo patterns. Results: Traditional tattoos often follow midline patterns, sparing the upper lip. Both melasma and tattoos significantly affected visual attention (p < 0.001), with chin and upper lip melasma garnering increased attention. Upper lip melasma decreased gaze to the ocular area (p ≤ 0.002). while increasing perioral fixations (p < 0.001) compared to healthy faces. Upper lip tattoos conveyed increased perceived aggressiveness (p = 0.004). Ratings for attractiveness and personality traits were lower for centrofacial melasma than other variants, with no significant difference between centrofacial and isolated upper lip melasma. Conclusions: The global avoidance of upper lip pigmentation underscores its perceptual burden. Upper lip pigmentation directs gaze towards anger-signalling regions, increasing perceived aggression and reducing attractiveness. Centrofacial melasma's impact parallels an isolated upper lip pattern, underscoring the disproportionate role of upper lip pigmentation. These findings warrant considering upper lip melasma's significant influence when evaluating quality of life and establishing treatment goals.