Understanding the neuropathogenesis of impaired social cognition in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is challenging. Altered cortical parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons have been consistently observed in ASD, but their roles and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In our study, we observed a downward-shifted spectrum of PV expression in the developing medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of ASD mouse models due to decreased activity of PV+ neurons. Surprisingly, chemogenetically suppressing PV+ neuron activity during postnatal development failed to induce ASD-like behaviors. In contrast, lowering excitatory activity in the developing mPFC not only dampened the activity state and PV expression of individual PV+ neurons, but also replicated ASD-like social deficits. Furthermore, enhancing excitation, but not PV+ interneuron-mediated inhibition, rescued social deficits in ASD mouse models. Collectively, our findings propose that reduced excitatory activity in the developing mPFC may serve as a shared local circuitry mechanism triggering alterations in PV+ interneurons and mediating impaired social functions in ASD.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have established the presence of gray matter atrophy and brain activation abnormalities during neurocognitive and social cognitive tasks in schizophrenia. Despite a growing consensus that diseases localize better to distributed brain networks than individual anatomical regions, there is still a dearth of literature examining brain network localization of gray matter atrophy, neurocognitive and social cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
METHODS: To address this gap, we initially identified brain locations of structural and functional abnormalities in schizophrenia from 301 published neuroimaging studies with 8712 schizophrenia individuals and 9275 healthy controls. By applying novel functional connectivity network mapping to large-scale resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets, we mapped these affected brain locations to 3 brain abnormality networks of schizophrenia.
RESULTS: The gray matter atrophy network of schizophrenia comprised a broadly distributed set of brain areas predominantly implicating the ventral attention, somatomotor, and default networks. The neurocognitive dysfunction network was also composed of widespread brain areas primarily involving the frontoparietal and default networks. By contrast, the social cognitive dysfunction network consisted of circumscribed brain regions mainly implicating the default, subcortical, and visual networks.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest shared and unique brain network substrates of gray matter atrophy, neurocognitive and social cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, which may not only refine the understanding of disease neuropathology from a network perspective, but also potentially contribute to more targeted and effective treatments for impairments in different cognitive domains in schizophrenia.

Group-based guilt (collective guilt) refers to the negative emotions experienced when group members violate moral standards and can motivate prosocial behavior. Individuals exhibiting high levels of moral disengagement are prone to engaging in unethical conduct without experience of guilt, thereby prolonging or exacerbating conflicts and hindering conflict resolution. Oxytocin is believed to play key role in shaping social cognition and behaviors associated with morality and prosociality. So, this study (N = 79) explores oxytocin\'s potential to enhance group-based guilt and compensation for victims among individuals with high moral disengagement. Employing a randomized placebo-controlled design, participants received either oxytocin or placebo before undertaking a task designed to induce group-based guilt, during which they made decisions regarding the allocation of money to victims. Results revealed that participants with high moral disengagement who received oxytocin perceived higher levels of moral responsibility, experienced increased group-based guilt, and allocated significantly more money to victims compared to those who received the placebo. These findings suggested that oxytocin holds promise as an intervention to mitigate moral disengagement and foster moral behavior in individuals predisposed to avoiding responsibility and guilt feelings.

This study examines how in-group bias affects altruistic sharing and second-party punishment in preschoolers and the role of theory of mind (ToM) in in-group bias. Preschoolers aged 4 to 7 years (N = 309; 160 girls) were asked to share resources with an in-group member and an out-group member (Dictator Game) and to reject or accept an unequal allocation proposed by an in-group member and an out-group member (Ultimatum Game). The results showed that preschoolers shared more resources with, and tolerated more unfair behaviors from, in-group members. ToM influenced the in-group bias in both altruistic sharing and second-party punishment. Notably, children\'s degree of in-group favoritism in altruistic sharing was positively related to the second-party punishment children imposed on out-group members. However, this pattern was found only among children who had acquired first-order ToM. This study reveals the developmental patterns of preschoolers\' in-group bias in altruistic sharing and second-party punishment and the effects of ToM on in-group bias.

Mentalizing, or theory of mind (ToM), impairments and self-referential hypermentalizing bias are well-evident in schizophrenia. However, findings compared to individuals with at-risk mental states (ARMS) are inconsistent, and investigations into the relationship between social cognitive impairments and social anxiety in the two populations are scarce. This study aimed to examine and compare these deficits in first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (FES) and ARMS, and to explore potential specific associations with neurocognition and symptomatology. Forty patients with FES, 40 individuals with ARMS, and 40 healthy controls (HC) completed clinical assessments, a battery of neurocognitive tasks, and three social cognitive tasks. The comic strip and hinting tasks were used to measure non-verbal and verbal mentalizing abilities, and the gaze perception task was employed to assess self-referential hypermentalizing bias. FES and ARMS showed comparable mentalizing impairments and self-referential hypermentalizing bias compared to HC. However, only ambiguous self-referential gaze perception (SRGP) bias remained significantly different between three groups after controlling for covariates. Findings suggested that self-referential hypermentalizing bias could be a specific deficit and may be considered a potential behavioral indicator in early-stage and prodromal psychosis. Moreover, working memory and social anxiety were related to the social cognitive impairments in ARMS, whereas higher-order executive functions and positive symptoms were associated with the impairments in FES. The current study indicates the presence of stage-specific mechanisms of mentalizing impairments and self-referential hypermentalizing bias, providing insights into the importance of personalized interventions to improve specific neurocognitive domains, social cognition, and clinical outcomes for FES and ARMS.

Moral disengagement is an important aggressive and moral cognition. The mechanisms of changes in moral disengagement remain unclear, especially at the within-person level. We attempted to clarify this by exploring the serial effects of personal relative deprivation and hostility on civic moral disengagement. We conducted a three-wave longitudinal survey with 1058 undergraduates (63.61% women; mean age = 20.97). The results of the random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed that personal relative deprivation at Wave 1 and hostility at Wave 2 formed a serial effect on the within-person changes in civic moral disengagement at Wave 3, and the longitudinal indirect effect test showed that the within-person dynamics in hostility at Wave 2 acted as a mediator. The results of multiple group analysis across genders further showed that the longitudinal indirect role of hostility at Wave 2 was only observed for men, but not for women, which indicates the moderating effect of gender. These findings facilitate an understanding of the mechanisms of aggressive cognitions at the within-person level and offer implications for the prevention and intervention of aggression from the perspective of moral cognition.

Social working memory (WM) temporarily retains and manipulates various aspects of social information. Extensive research has highlighted impaired social cognitive functions in individuals with substance addiction. However, the specific deficit in social WM within this population remains notably understudied. Bridging this gap, we investigated social WM capacity using biological motion (BM) stimuli in methamphetamine (MA) abusers compared to an inmate control group, alongside contrasting these findings with their canonical WM deficits. Across two studies, we recruited female MA abusers (N = 80) undergoing post-isolation rehabilitation within a mandatory confinement circumstance. To ensure a pertinent comparison, we recruited female inmates (N = 80) subjected to comparable confinement. Results show substantial BM WM impairment in MA abusers, yet non-BM WM remains mostly intact. These findings highlight a pronounced social WM deficit in MA abusers, surpassing their canonical WM deficit relative to inmate controls. This suggests a distinct dissociation between social and canonical WM processing.

People form impressions about others during daily social encounters and infer personality traits from others\' behaviors. Such trait inference is thought to rely on two universal dimensions: competence and warmth. These two dimensions can be used to construct a \'social cognitive map\' organizing massive information obtained from social encounters efficiently. Originating from spatial cognition, the neural codes supporting the representation and navigation of spatial cognitive maps have been widely studied. Recent studies suggest similar neural mechanism subserves the map-like architecture in social cognition as well. Here we investigated how spatial codes operate beyond the physical environment and support the representation and navigation of social cognitive map. We designed a social value space defined by two dimensions of competence and warmth. Behaviorally, participants were able to navigate to a learned location from random starting locations in this abstract social space. At the neural level, we identified the representation of distance in the precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and middle occipital gyrus. We also found partial evidence of grid-like representation patterns in the medial prefrontal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Moreover, the intensity of grid-like response scaled with the performance of navigating in social space and social avoidance trait scores. Our findings suggest a neurocognitive mechanism by which social information can be organized into a structured representation, namely cognitive map and its relevance to social well-being.

The ability to comprehend the intention conveyed through human body movements is crucial for effective interpersonal interactions. If people can\'t understand the intention behind other individuals\' isolated or interactive actions, their actions will become meaningless. Psychologists have investigated the cognitive processes and neural representations involved in understanding action intention, yet a cohesive theoretical explanation remains elusive. Hence, we mainly review existing literature related to neural correlates of action intention, and primarily propose a putative Three-stage Dynamic Brain-cognitive Model of understanding action intention, which involves body perception, action identification and intention understanding. Specifically, at the first stage, body parts/shapes are processed by those brain regions such as extrastriate and fusiform body areas; During the second stage, differentiating observed actions relies on configuring relationships between body parts, facilitated by the activation of the Mirror Neuron System; The last stage involves identifying various intention categories, utilizing the Mentalizing System for recruitment, and different activation patterns concerning the nature of the intentions participants dealing with. Finally, we delves into the clinical practice, like intervention training based on a theoretical model for individuals with autism spectrum disorders who encounter difficulties in interpersonal communication.

UNASSIGNED: Investigating the effects of monetary incentives on dishonest behavior provides valuable insights into human integrity and ethical decision-making processes. This study is conducted through the lens of self-concept maintenance theory.
UNASSIGNED: The aim of this study is to examine the influence of different types of rewards (score-based vs. monetary) and their magnitude on dishonest behavior within a gender judgment task.
UNASSIGNED: Using a quantitative experimental design, this study involved 116 participants who were randomly assigned to conditions that differed in reward type (score or money) and magnitude (10 yuan vs. 50 yuan). Dishonest behavior was assessed using a gender judgment task with mechanisms to simulate conditions conducive to planned cheating.
UNASSIGNED: Results revealed significant differences in dishonesty rates between score and money conditions, with a higher proportion of dishonest participants observed in the score condition compared to the money condition. The timing of initial cheating was earlier in the score condition compared to the money condition. No significant differences were found in the proportion of dishonest participants, the cheating rate, or the timing of initial cheating across reward levels within either condition. The rate of cheating increased over time, suggesting a temporal dynamic in unethical decision making.
UNASSIGNED: The study demonstrates that the nature of rewards significantly influences the likelihood of dishonest behavior, with intangible score-based rewards facilitating rationalizations for dishonesty more readily than tangible financial incentives. These findings enrich the understanding of moral psychology by highlighting the complex interplay between reward types, ethical rationalization, and the dynamics of dishonest behavior.