Can Neuroscience Advance Our Understanding of Core Questions in Communication Studies? An Overview of Communication Neuroscience

Can neuroimaging methods offer any benefit to communication scholars? Although communication scholars draw on multiple, interdisciplinary methods, the field has not traditionally leveraged neuroimaging techniques (Cappella, 1996). By contrast, other social science disciplines have benefitted greatly from the use of neuroscience methodologies to test core theoretical questions (Adolphs, 2003; Cabeza & Nyberg, 2000a; Cacioppo, 2002; Cacioppo, Berntson, Sheridan, & McClintock, 2000; Lieberman, 2010; Loewenstein, Rick, & Cohen, 2008; Ochsner & Lieberman, 2001; Poldrack, 2008; Sanfey, Loewenstein, & Mcclure, 2006; Yarkoni, Poldrack, Van Essen, & Wager, 2010). The current chapter outlines a vision for how communication studies might leverage neuroimaging technologies moving forward. We begin by defining communication neuroscience as a subdiscipline and giving a brief overview of the most commonly employed neuroimaging methods. We follow this introduction with a discussion of the types of questions that neuroimaging is most equipped to answer and suggest areas for further exploration

Persuasion and Influence: What Makes a Successful Persuader?

What makes people successful at influencing others? In this review, we focus on the role of the persuader (i.e., person who attempts to influence a recipient), drawing from findings in neuroscience to highlight key drivers that contribute to persuaders’ decisions to share information, and variables that distinguish successful persuaders from those who are less successful. We review evidence that people\u27s motivations to share are guided in the brain by value-based decision making, with self-relevance and social-relevance as two key motivational inputs to the value computation. We then argue that persuaders who exhibit higher awareness of social considerations and increased recruitment of the brain\u27s mentalizing system are more successful. We conclude by suggesting that approaches integrating social and neural networks can productively advance knowledge in this field

Beyond Brain Mapping: Using Neural Measures to Predict Real-World Outcomes

One goal of social science in general, and of psychology in particular, is to understand and predict human behavior. Psychologists have traditionally used self-report measures and performance on laboratory tasks to achieve this end. However, these measures are limited in their ability to predict behavior in certain contexts. We argue that current neuroscientific knowledge has reached a point where it can complement other existing psychological measures in predicting behavior and other important outcomes. This brain-as-predictor approach integrates traditional neuroimaging methods with measures of behavioral outcomes that extend beyond the immediate experimental session. Previously, most neuroimaging experiments focused on understanding basic psychological processes that could be directly observed in the laboratory. However, recent experiments have demonstrated that brain measures can predict outcomes (e.g., purchasing decisions, clinical outcomes) over longer timescales in ways that go beyond what was previously possible with self-report data alone. This approach can be used to reveal the connections between neural activity in laboratory contexts and longer-term, ecologically valid outcomes. We describe this approach and discuss its potential theoretical implications. We also review recent examples of studies that have used this approach, discuss methodological considerations, and provide specific guidelines for using it in future research

Interventions Highlighting Hypocrisy Reduce Collective Blame of Muslims for Individual Acts of Violence and Assuage Anti-Muslim Hostility

Collectively blaming groups for the actions of individuals can license vicarious retribution. Acts of terrorism by Muslim extremists against innocents, and the spikes in anti-Muslim hate crimes against innocent Muslims that follow, suggest that reciprocal bouts of collective blame can spark cycles of violence. How can this cycle be short-circuited? After establishing a link between collective blame of Muslims and anti-Muslim attitudes and behavior, we used an “interventions tournament” to identify a successful intervention (among many that failed). The “winning” intervention reduced collective blame of Muslims by highlighting hypocrisy in the ways individuals collectively blame Muslims—but not other groups (White Americans, Christians)—for individual group members’ actions. After replicating the effect in an independent sample, we demonstrate that a novel interactive activity that isolates the psychological mechanism amplifies the effectiveness of the collective blame hypocrisy intervention and results in downstream reductions in anti-Muslim attitudes and anti-Muslim behavior

Coherent Activity between Brain Regions that Code for Value is Linked to the Malleability of Human Behavior

Brain activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) during exposure to persuasive messages can predict health behavior change. This brain-behavior relationship has been linked to areas of MPFC previously associated with self-related processing; however, the mechanism underlying this relationship is unclear. We explore two components of self-related processing – self-reflection and subjective valuation – and examine coherent activity between relevant networks of brain regions during exposure to health messages encouraging exercise and discouraging sedentary behaviors. We find that objectively logged reductions in sedentary behavior in the following month are linked to functional connectivity within brain regions associated with positive valuation, but not within regions associated with self-reflection on personality traits. Furthermore, functional connectivity between valuation regions contributes additional information compared to average brain activation within single brain regions. These data support an account in which MPFC integrates the value of messages to the self during persuasive health messaging and speak to broader questions of how humans make decisions about how to behave

Functional brain network architecture supporting the learning of social networks in humans

Most humans have the good fortune to live their lives embedded in richly structured social groups. Yet, it remains unclear how humans acquire knowledge about these social structures to successfully navigate social relationships. Here we address this knowledge gap with an interdisciplinary neuroimaging study drawing on recent advances in network science and statistical learning. Specifically, we collected BOLD MRI data while participants learned the community structure of both social and non-social networks, in order to examine whether the learning of these two types of networks was differentially associated with functional brain network topology. From the behavioral data in both tasks, we found that learners were sensitive to the community structure of the networks, as evidenced by a slower reaction time on trials transitioning between clusters than on trials transitioning within a cluster. From the neuroimaging data collected during the social network learning task, we observed that the functional connectivity of the hippocampus and temporoparietal junction was significantly greater when transitioning between clusters than when transitioning within a cluster. Furthermore, temporoparietal regions of the default mode were more strongly connected to hippocampus, somatomotor, and visual regions during the social task than during the non-social task. Collectively, our results identify neurophysiological underpinnings of social versus non-social network learning, extending our knowledge about the impact of social context on learning processes. More broadly, this work offers an empirical approach to study the learning of social network structures, which could be fruitfully extended to other participant populations, various graph architectures, and a diversity of social contexts in future studies

Social Influence and the Brain: Persuasion, Susceptibility to Influence and Retransmission

Social influence is an important topic of research, with a particularly long history in the social sciences. Recently, social influence has also become a topic of interest among neuroscientists. The aim of this review is to highlight current research that has examined neural systems associated with social influence, from the perspective of being influenced as well as influencing others, and highlight studies that link neural mechanisms with real-world behavior change beyond the laboratory. Although many of the studies reviewed focus on localizing brain regions implicated in influence within the lab, we argue that approaches that account for networks of brain regions and that integrate neural data with data beyond the laboratory are likely to be most fruitful in understanding influence

Big Data in the New Media Environment: Commentary on Bentley, O\u27Brien, & Brock (2014)

Bentley, O’Brien, & Brock (Bentley et al.) argue for the social scientific contextualization of “big data” by proposing a four-quadrant model. We suggest extensions of the east (socially motivated)—west (independently motivated) decision-making dimension in light of findings from social psychology and neuroscience. We outline a method that leverages linguistic tools to connect insights across fields that address the individuals underlying big-data media streams

Big data in the new media environment

Bentley et al. argue for the social scientific contextualization of “big data” by proposing a four-quadrant model. We suggest extensions of the east–west (i.e., socially motivated versus independently motivated) decision-making dimension in light of findings from social psychology and neuroscience. We outline a method that leverages linguistic tools to connect insights across fields that address the individuals underlying big-data media streams

Narcissists Social Pain Seen Only in the Brain

Narcissism is a complex phenomenon, involving a level of defensive self-enhancement. Narcissists have avoidant attachment styles, maintain distance in relationships, and claim not to need others. However, they are especially sensitive to others’ evaluations, needing positive reflected appraisals to maintain their inflated self-views, and showing extreme responses (e.g. aggression) when rejected. The current study tested the hypothesis that narcissists also show hypersensitivity in brain systems associated with distress during exclusion. We measured individual differences in narcissism (Narcissistic Personality Inventory) and monitored neural responses to social exclusion (Cyberball). Narcissism was significantly associated with activity in an a priori anatomically defined social pain network (AI, dACC, and subACC) during social exclusion. Results suggest hypersensitivity to exclusion in narcissists may be a function of hypersensitivity in brain systems associated with distress, and suggests a potential pathway that connects narcissism to negative consequences for longer term physical and mental health— findings not apparent with self-report alone