Montre-moi comment tu bouges, je te dirai à quoi tu penses : vers une approche incarnée de la cognition sociale

This thesis assumes a grounded approach to social cognition, which defends that our abilities to understand others’ mental states rely on our immediate experience of sensori-motor informations in social interactions and do not need any inference processes. Some critical theorethical limits have been addressed to this approach to social cognition. Typically, it is considered that this conception can not explain high order mentalization, as, for example, the inference of social intentions, because there are not systematic links between those cognitive constructs and the systems of perception and action. Through the studies of this thesis, we have in a first time showed that the kinematics of voluntary movements are influenced by the type of social intention that is endorsed by participants. Precisely, when an action is produced for a partner, its spatio-temporal characteristics are amplified. Then, we have demonstrated that these kinematic variations are influenced by the physical properties of the partner, and particularly by the eyes’ level. Finally, our results showed that these typical kinematic variations are implicitly processed during social interaction and that they can trigger spontaneous social intention attribution. Interestingly, the ability of participants to access others’ mental states from motor action variations is strongly related to their explicit mentalizing performances. In sum, this thesis provides the first experimental evidences supporting the possibility to spontaneously access to others’ social intentions from perceptive and motor processes.Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une approche incarnée de la cognition sociale, selon laquelle la capacité à comprendre les états mentaux d’autres individus ne nécessite aucune inférence mais repose plutôt sur l’expérience immédiate des informations sensori-motrices perçues lors d’interactions sociales. D’importantes limites ont été formulées à l’encontre de cette approche. Il est notamment considéré qu’elle ne peut rendre compte de phénomènes dits de « hauts niveaux » de mentalisation, comme l’inférence d’intentions sociales, puisqu’il n’existe pas de relations systématiques entre ces dernières et les systèmes de la perception et de l’action. A travers les études de cette thèse, nous avons tout d’abord mis en évidence des altérations systèmatiques de la cinématique de mouvements volontaires selon les intentions sociales poursuivies. Précisément, lorsqu’une action est produite avec l’intention de servir à un partenaire, ses caractéristiques spatio-temporelles sont amplifiées. Ensuite, nous avons démontré que ces déformations cinématiques étaient fonction des propriétés physiques, et particulièrement de la hauteur des yeux du partenaire. Enfin, nos résultats montrent que ces déformations cinématiques sont implicitement traitées lors d’interactions sociales et qu’elles entraînent l’inférence spontanée d’intention sociale. De façon intéressante, la capacité des participants à accéder à ces informations privées à partir de variations cinématiques était fortement liée à leurs capacités explicites de mentalisation. Ainsi, cette thèse fournit les premières évidences expérimentales soutenant la possibilité d’accéder spontanément aux intentions sociales d’autres personnes à partir de processus perceptifs et moteurs

The impact of culture on neuropsychological performance: A global social cognition study across 12 countries

AbstractBackgroundDecades of researches aiming to unveil truths about human neuropsychology may have instead unveil facts appropriate to only a fraction of the world's population: those living in western educated rich democratic nations (Muthukrishna et al., 2020 Psych Sci). So far, most studies were conducted as if education and cultural assumptions on which neuropsychology is based were universals and applied everywhere in the world. The importance given to sociological or cultural factors is thus still relatively ignored. With the growth of international clinical studies on dementia, we believe that documenting the potential inter‐cultural differences at stake in a common neuropsychological assessment is an essential topic. This study thus aimed to explore these potential variations in two classical tasks used in neuropsychology that are composing the mini‐SEA (Bertoux et al., 2012 JNNP), i.e. a reduced version of the well‐known Ekman faces (FER), where one has to recognize facial emotions, and a modified version of the Faux Pas test (mFP), where one has to detect and explain social faux.MethodThe data of 573 control participants were collected through the Social Cognition & FTLD Network, an international consortium investigating social cognitive changes in dementia covering 3 continents (18 research centres in 12 countries). Impact of demographic factors and the effect of countries on performance (mini‐SEA, FER, mFP) were explored through linear mixed‐effects models.ResultAge, education and gender were found to significantly impact the performance of the mini‐SEA subtests. Significant and important variations across the countries were also retrieved, with England having the highest performance for all scores. When controlling for demographical factors, differences within countries explained between 14% (mFP) and 24% (FER) of the variance at the mini‐SEA. These variations were not explained by any economical or sociological metrics.ConclusionImportant variations of performance were observed across the 12 countries of the consortium, showing how cultural differences may critically impact neuropsychological performance in international studies

Does Culture Shape Our Understanding of Others’ Thoughts and Emotions? An Investigation Across 12 Countries

Q2Q2Measures of social cognition have now become central in neuropsychology, being essential for early and differential diagnoses, follow-up, and rehabilitation in a wide range of conditions. With the scientific world becoming increasingly interconnected, international neuropsychological and medical collaborations are burgeoning to tackle the global challenges that are mental health conditions. These initiatives commonly merge data across a diversity of populations and countries, while ignoring their specificity. Objective: In this context, we aimed to estimate the influence of participants’ nationality on social cognition evaluation. This issue is of particular importance as most cognitive tasks are developed in highly specific contexts, not representative of that encountered by the world’s population. Method: Through a large international study across 18 sites, neuropsychologists assessed core aspects of social cognition in 587 participants from 12 countries using traditional and widely used tasks. Results: Age, gender, and education were found to impact measures of mentalizing and emotion recognition. After controlling for these factors, differences between countries accounted for more than 20% of the variance on both measures. Importantly, it was possible to isolate participants’ nationality from potential translation issues, which classically constitute a major limitation. Conclusions: Overall, these findings highlight the need for important methodological shifts to better represent social cognition in both fundamental research and clinical practice, especially within emerging international networks and consortia.https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9422-3579https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6529-7077Revista Internacional - IndexadaA2N

Show me how you move, I'll tell you what you're thinking : towards an embodied approach to social cognition

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une approche incarnée de la cognition sociale, selon laquelle la capacité à comprendre les états mentaux d’autres individus ne nécessite aucune inférence mais repose plutôt sur l’expérience immédiate des informations sensori-motrices perçues lors d’interactions sociales. D’importantes limites ont été formulées à l’encontre de cette approche. Il est notamment considéré qu’elle ne peut rendre compte de phénomènes dits de « hauts niveaux » de mentalisation, comme l’inférence d’intentions sociales, puisqu’il n’existe pas de relations systématiques entre ces dernières et les systèmes de la perception et de l’action. A travers les études de cette thèse, nous avons tout d’abord mis en évidence des altérations systèmatiques de la cinématique de mouvements volontaires selon les intentions sociales poursuivies. Précisément, lorsqu’une action est produite avec l’intention de servir à un partenaire, ses caractéristiques spatio-temporelles sont amplifiées. Ensuite, nous avons démontré que ces déformations cinématiques étaient fonction des propriétés physiques, et particulièrement de la hauteur des yeux du partenaire. Enfin, nos résultats montrent que ces déformations cinématiques sont implicitement traitées lors d’interactions sociales et qu’elles entraînent l’inférence spontanée d’intention sociale. De façon intéressante, la capacité des participants à accéder à ces informations privées à partir de variations cinématiques était fortement liée à leurs capacités explicites de mentalisation. Ainsi, cette thèse fournit les premières évidences expérimentales soutenant la possibilité d’accéder spontanément aux intentions sociales d’autres personnes à partir de processus perceptifs et moteurs.This thesis assumes a grounded approach to social cognition, which defends that our abilities to understand others’ mental states rely on our immediate experience of sensori-motor informations in social interactions and do not need any inference processes. Some critical theorethical limits have been addressed to this approach to social cognition. Typically, it is considered that this conception can not explain high order mentalization, as, for example, the inference of social intentions, because there are not systematic links between those cognitive constructs and the systems of perception and action. Through the studies of this thesis, we have in a first time showed that the kinematics of voluntary movements are influenced by the type of social intention that is endorsed by participants. Precisely, when an action is produced for a partner, its spatio-temporal characteristics are amplified. Then, we have demonstrated that these kinematic variations are influenced by the physical properties of the partner, and particularly by the eyes’ level. Finally, our results showed that these typical kinematic variations are implicitly processed during social interaction and that they can trigger spontaneous social intention attribution. Interestingly, the ability of participants to access others’ mental states from motor action variations is strongly related to their explicit mentalizing performances. In sum, this thesis provides the first experimental evidences supporting the possibility to spontaneously access to others’ social intentions from perceptive and motor processes

What Do Theory-of-Mind Tasks Actually Measure? Theory and Practice

International audienceIn recent decades, the ability to represent others' mental states (i.e., theory of mind) has gained particular attention in various disciplines ranging from ethology to cognitive neuroscience. Despite the exponentially growing interest, the functional architecture of social cognition is still unclear. In the present review, we argue that not only the vocabulary but also most of the classic measures for theory of mind lack specificity. We examined classic tests used to assess theory of mind and noted that the majority of them do not require the participant to represent another's mental state or, sometimes, any mental state at all. Our review reveals that numerous classic tests measure lower-level processes that do not directly test for theory of mind. We propose that more attention should be paid to methods used in this field of social cognition to improve the understanding of underlying concepts

For your eyes only: effect of confederate's eye level on reach-to-grasp action

International audiencePrevious studies have shown that the spatio-temporal parameters of reach-to-grasp movement are influenced by the social context in which the motor action is performed. In particular, when interacting with a confederate, movements are slower, with longer initiation times and more ample trajectories, which has been interpreted as implicit communicative information emerging through voluntary movement to catch the partner's attention and optimize cooperation (Quesque et al., 2013). Because gaze is a crucial component of social interactions, the present study evaluated the role of a confederate's eye level on the social modulation of trajectory curvature. An actor and a partner facing each other took part in a cooperative task consisting, for one of them, of grasping and moving a wooden dowel under time constraints. Before this Main action, the actor performed a Preparatory action, which consisted of placing the wooden dowel on a central marking. The partner's eye level was unnoticeably varied using an adjustable seat that matched or was higher than the actor's seat. Our data confirmed the previous effects of social intention on motor responses. Furthermore, we observed an effect of the partner's eye level on the Preparatory action, leading the actors to exaggerate unconsciously the trajectory curvature in relation to their partner's eye level. No interaction was found between the actor's social intention and their partner's eye level. These results suggest that other bodies are implicitly taken into account when a reach-to-grasp movement is produced in a social context

Cooperative and competitive contexts do not modify the effect of social intention on motor action

In social interactions, the movements performed by others can be used to anticipate their intention. The present paper investigates whether cooperative vs competitive contexts influence the kinematics of object-directed motor actions and whether they modulate the effect of social intention on motor actions. An "Actor" and a "Partner" participated in a task consisting in displacing a wooden dowel under time constraint. Before this Main action, the Actor performed a Preparatory action which consisted in placing the dowel at the center of the table. Information about who would make the forthcoming Main action was provided only to the Actor through headphones. Results demonstrate an exaggeration of spatial and temporal actions' parameters when acting for the Partner, in cooperative, as well as in competitive context. This finding suggests that the motor manifestation of social intention is largely determined by non-conscious implicit processes that seem little influenced by the context of social interaction

Wearing a face mask against Covid-19 results in a reduction of social distancing.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, barrier gestures such as regular hand-washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask are highly recommended. Critically, interpersonal distance (IPD) depends on the affective dimension of social interaction, which might be affected by the current Covid-19 context. In the present internet-based experimental study, we analyzed the preferred IPD of 457 French participants when facing human-like characters that were either wearing a face mask or displaying a neutral, happy or angry facial expression. Results showed that IPD was significantly reduced when characters were wearing a face mask, as they were perceived as more trustworthy compared to the other conditions. Importantly, IPD was even more reduced in participants infected with Covid-19 or living in low-risk areas, while it was not affected by the predicted health of the characters. These findings shed further light on the psychological factors that motivate IPD adjustments, in particular when facing a collective threat. They are also of crucial importance for policy makers as they reveal that despite the indisputable value of wearing a face mask in the current pandemic context, their use should be accompanied by an emphasis on social distancing to prevent detrimental health consequences

Facilitation effect of observed motor deviants in a cooperative motor task: Evidence for direct perception of social intention in action

Spatiotemporal parameters of voluntary motor action may help optimize human social interactions. Yet it is unknown whether individuals performing a cooperative task spontaneously perceive subtly informative social cues emerging through voluntary actions. In the present study, an auditory cue was provided through headphones to an actor and a partner who faced each other. Depending on the pitch of the auditory cue, either the actor or the partner were required to grasp and move a wooden dowel under time constraints from a central to a lateral position. Before this main action, the actor performed a preparatory action under no time constraint, consisting in placing the wooden dowel on the central location when receiving either a neutral ("prêt"-ready) or an informative auditory cue relative to who will be asked to perform the main action (the actor: "moi"-me, or the partner: "lui"-him). Although the task focused on the main action, analysis of motor performances revealed that actors performed the preparatory action with longer reaction times and higher trajectories when informed that the partner would be performing the main action. In this same condition, partners executed the main actions with shorter reaction times and lower velocities, despite having received no previous informative cues. These results demonstrate that the mere observation of socially driven motor actions spontaneously influences the low-level kinematics of voluntary motor actions performed by the observer during a cooperative motor task. These findings indicate that social intention can be anticipated from the mere observation of action patterns