Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Becoming Social (Social Interaction Perception and the Social Brain Across Typical and Atypical Development)
Période du rapport: 2021-10-01 au 2023-07-31
Social interactions are multifaceted and subtle, yet we can almost instantaneously discern if two people are cooperating or competing, flirting or fighting, or helping or hindering each other. Our understanding of social interactions is core to our ability to quickly understand social situations, the personalities and relationships of those around us, and our ability to fit our own social actions into the group. This skill is important throughout development because our knowledge of the world is shaped from the very beginning by the social interactions we observe and engage in. Even very young children use the social interactions they see around them to choose which people to trust and learn from. Social interactions, then, are one way in which children transform the social information around them into social understanding to scaffold and support learning.
Surprisingly, the brain basis and the development of this remarkable ability has remained largely unexplored. We have found that observed social interactions are processed and understood through a network of dedicated regions. In this project we examined how both adults and children process and understand the social interactions they observe. Moreover, we have also started to tackle how these processes may differ when people struggle with understanding or engaging with social interactions, processes that are affected for those with social anxiety, those who are autistic, and those who chronically experience profound loneliness. Thus, this work has sought to answer questions such as: How are social interactions we observe coded in the brain? How are individual differences in brain and behavioural measures related to “real-world” social ability? This work contributes to our understanding of how the social brain develops, and the relationship between how interactions are perceived and how this information is coded in the brain.
Surprisingly, the brain basis and the development of this remarkable ability has remained largely unexplored. We have found that observed social interactions are processed and understood through a network of dedicated regions. In this project we examined how both adults and children process and understand the social interactions they observe. Moreover, we have also started to tackle how these processes may differ when people struggle with understanding or engaging with social interactions, processes that are affected for those with social anxiety, those who are autistic, and those who chronically experience profound loneliness. Thus, this work has sought to answer questions such as: How are social interactions we observe coded in the brain? How are individual differences in brain and behavioural measures related to “real-world” social ability? This work contributes to our understanding of how the social brain develops, and the relationship between how interactions are perceived and how this information is coded in the brain.
Our results in work package 1 suggest that typical adults preferentially attend to social interactions over even other social information and form complex and nuanced judgements about observed interactions on the basis of very little information (e.g. Skripkauskaite et al, 2023; Newey et al, 2021). Neurally, our results suggest that a region in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is centrally involved (e.g. Isik et al, 2017; Walbrin et al, 2018) - at least when interactive information is dynamic and unfolds over time (e.g. Landsiedel et al, 2022). In contrast, a region that is sensitive to body information, the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) may be involved enabling the first stages of interaction perception through supporting the quick detection of interacting dyads (Gandolfo et al, 2023) and thus is sometimes also part of the network that is engaged during dynamic interaction processing (e.g. Walbrin et al., 2019). This network is sensitive and ‘codes’ for many aspects of the content of interactions, including who is involved, what emotion(s) are being expressed, and the actions that interactors engage in (e.g. Walbrin et al, 2018, 2019). These regions, particularly the pSTS, are also sensitive to interactive cues in the auditory domain (Landsiedel & Koldewyn, 2023).
The work in work packages 2 and 3 has shown that brain regions and networks that are active in adults are also active in children but are not yet fully tuned for interactive information (Walbrin et al, 2020). Interestingly, children utilise higher order social cognitive networks to support their processing/understanding of observed interactions while adults appear to rely almost entirely on social perception systems (Walbrin et al, 2023). These systems and skills appear to develop over during early to middle adolescence. Indeed, although children also show preferential attention to social interactions, they do not extract the same social judgements from observed interactions that adults do. Children and young adolescents interpret social scenes more ‘conservatively’ than adults – they are less willing to label ambiguous scenarios as “social interactions” and make fewer social inferences about such scenes than do adults. Children who struggle with social interaction perception are also more likely to struggle with ‘simple’ emotion perception and face processing and face production tasks. Similarly, adolescents and adults who are on the autistic spectrum, or are socially anxious, socially isolated, or experience chronic loneliness interpret social scenes more negatively and process them differently.
Together, the work across the project has greatly increased our understanding of the networks that support complex social perception and how they develop. The continuing work in the lab made possible by the grant holds promise for building our understanding of limits of this system when processing information from non-human interactant as well as how this system is altered when individuals struggle to understand or engage with social interactions. The continuing work in the lab made possible by the grant holds promise for building our understanding of limits of this system when processing information from non-human interactant as well as how this system is altered when individuals struggle to understand or engage with social interactions.
The work in work packages 2 and 3 has shown that brain regions and networks that are active in adults are also active in children but are not yet fully tuned for interactive information (Walbrin et al, 2020). Interestingly, children utilise higher order social cognitive networks to support their processing/understanding of observed interactions while adults appear to rely almost entirely on social perception systems (Walbrin et al, 2023). These systems and skills appear to develop over during early to middle adolescence. Indeed, although children also show preferential attention to social interactions, they do not extract the same social judgements from observed interactions that adults do. Children and young adolescents interpret social scenes more ‘conservatively’ than adults – they are less willing to label ambiguous scenarios as “social interactions” and make fewer social inferences about such scenes than do adults. Children who struggle with social interaction perception are also more likely to struggle with ‘simple’ emotion perception and face processing and face production tasks. Similarly, adolescents and adults who are on the autistic spectrum, or are socially anxious, socially isolated, or experience chronic loneliness interpret social scenes more negatively and process them differently.
Together, the work across the project has greatly increased our understanding of the networks that support complex social perception and how they develop. The continuing work in the lab made possible by the grant holds promise for building our understanding of limits of this system when processing information from non-human interactant as well as how this system is altered when individuals struggle to understand or engage with social interactions. The continuing work in the lab made possible by the grant holds promise for building our understanding of limits of this system when processing information from non-human interactant as well as how this system is altered when individuals struggle to understand or engage with social interactions.
This project is the first to investigate how the perception of complex social scenes changes across developmental time - attentionally, behaviourally, and in the brain. Moreover, we have used cutting-edge approaches to investigate developmental change from a network perspective, and used a variety of techniques to answer our core questions from a behavioural, cognitive, perceptual and neural perspective simultaneously. This integrative approach has the potential to significantly advance out understanding of the social brain and how it develops. Importantly, the knowledge gained through the project has the promise to have significant clinical and educational impact, helping us to better understand those who struggle to understand and engage with others socially.