Neuroimaging Personality, Social Cognition, and Character

John R Absher, Jasmin Cloutier

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780128009352
• eBook ISBN: 9780128011669
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Neurología

Neuroimaging Personality, Social Cognition, and Character covers the science of combining brain imaging with other analytical techniques for use in understanding cognition, behavior, consciousness, memory, language, visual perception, emotional control, and other human attributes. Multidimensional brain imaging research has led to a greater understanding of character traits such as honesty, generosity, truthfulness, and foresight previously unachieved by quantitative mapping. This book summarizes the latest brain imaging research pertaining to character with structural and functional human brain imaging in both normal individuals and those with brain disease or disorder, including psychiatric disorders.By reviewing and synthesizing the latest structural and functional brain imaging research related to character, this book situates itself into the larger framework of cognitive neuroscience, psychiatric neuroimaging, related fields of research, and a wide range of academic fields, such as politics, psychology, medicine, education, law, and religion.- Provides a novel innovative reference on the emerging use of neuroimaging to reveal the biological substrates of character, such as optimism, honesty, generosity, and others- Features chapters from leading physicians and researchers in the field- Contains full-color text that includes both an overview of multiple disciplines and a detailed review of modern neuroimaging tools as they are applied to study human character- Presents an integrative volume with far-reaching implications for guiding future imaging research in the social, psychological and medical sciences, and for applying these findings to a wide range of non-clinical disciplines such as law, politics, and religion- Connects brain structure and function to human character and integrates modern neuroimaging techniques and other research methods for this purpose

Section II

Perspectives on the Neural Basis of Personality and Dispositions

Outline

Chapter 2. Approach/Avoidance

Chapter 3. Integrating Personality/Character Neuroscience with Network Analysis

Chapter 4. Genetics, Brain, and Personality: Searching for Intermediate Phenotypes

Chapter 5. Anxiety and Harm Avoidance

Chapter 6. Impulsiveness and Inhibitory Mechanisms

Chapter 2

Approach/Avoidance

Neil McNaughton¹, Colin G. DeYoung², and Philip J. Corr^{3 1}Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand ²Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA ³Department of Psychology, City University London, London, UK

Abstract

Approach and avoidance behaviors have evolved with adaptive constraints common to a plethora of positive and negative goals, respectively. Approach and avoidance systems are linked by contingencies to distinct systems that value positive (gain) and negative (loss) stimuli (e.g., omission of gain results in avoidance). An additional, phylogenetically old, behavioral inhibition system resolves goal conflicts (e.g., approach-avoidance). With this functional and neuropsychological analysis as a foundation, we review the neuroimaging data on transient mental states and more permanent traits (particularly extraversion and neuroticism) linked to approach, avoidance, and conflict. This field is in its infancy and we conclude by discussing theoretical problems that limit our identification of factors and methodological problems, particularly insufficient numbers in imaging samples, that limit the evidential value of most current results.

Keywords

Approach; Avoidance; Behavioral Inhibition System; Conflict; Extraversion; Neuroticism

Outline

1. Basics of Approach/Avoidance—Behavior and Brain 25

1.1 Positive and Negative Goals 26

1.2 Valuation versus Motivation 28

1.3 Goal Interactions, Gradients, and Goal Conflict 29

1.4 Hierarchical Control 31

1.5 From System Architecture to Neuroimaging 33

2. State Neuroimaging of Approach, Avoidance, and Goal Conflict 35

2.1 State Neuroimaging of Approach/Reward 35

2.2 State Neuroimaging of Avoidance/Punishment 36

2.3 State Neuroimaging of Goal Conflict 37

2.4 “A Link between the Systems”—State Neuroimaging of the Insula 38

3. Trait Neuroimaging of Approach, Avoidance, and Goal Conflict 39

3.1 Neuroimaging and Approach Traits 40

3.2 Neuroimaging and Avoidance and Goal Conflict Traits 41

3.3 Future Directions for Trait Research 43

4. From Basics to States and Traits: Assessing Approach, Avoidance, and Goal Conflict 43

References 44

1. Basics of Approach/Avoidance—Behavior and Brain

Approach and avoidance behaviors are fundamental to survival. As such, they depend on phylogenetically old systems with many conserved features. For this reason, the basic human brain systems for approach and avoidance have much in common with those of other species. Through study, we know more about the neurobiology of these systems and related traits than we do about most others, and this has translated into progress in human neuroimaging research. In this chapter, we lay out basic principles for understanding the processes of approach and avoidance, and then we briefly discuss neuroimaging research on the states related to them before discussing the progress in research on related personality traits.

Importantly, we define personality traits in terms of longer-term stabilities in patterns of states. That is, the level of a trait reflects the likelihood of being in a particular type of state, given a particular set of eliciting stimuli. The activation of approach and avoidance systems in any given situation requires careful long-term control of its precise intensity for any given input, and this long-term trait control of levels of activation is influenced by genes, developmental processes, and life events. These two systems and their associated traits can be seen as providing a foundation for the more complex processes from which mind and personality emerge.

Both the specific states that result from the activation of approach and avoidance systems and the longer-term sensitivities that tune these activations to match current functional requirements can be assessed indirectly through many techniques, including self-report and behavioral data. But increasingly the more direct measurements of neuroimaging are affording new insights. Detailed analysis of neuroimaging specific aspects of approach/avoidance systems is provided in chapters 3, 5 and 6 of the book. Here, we provide a more general overview of the fundamental nature of approach and avoidance, the systems that control them, details of a third system that resolves conflicts between goals, and the range of resultant states and traits that should be open to analysis by neuroimaging. It is important to note that within this chapter, we will use the simple term “avoidance” to refer to active avoidance (often termed withdrawal) and the terms “goal conflict processing” and “behavioral inhibition” to refer to passive avoidance. This is an important functional distinction, as these two forms of avoidance are mediated by different, and partially opposing, systems of behavior regulation.^1,2

It is important to distinguish more general, positively motivated, goal-directed, behavior from object-specific consummatory behaviors (e.g., eating, drinking, and mating). Likewise, direct or very close contacts with specific affectively negative objects require specific defensive behaviors (e.g., attacking an enemy or avoiding contact with fluids from an Ebola corpse). There can be individual differences in these object-specific systems (with extreme sensitivity seen in clinical conditions such as uncontrollable aggression and stimulus-specific phobia). However, once there is even a moderate distance between the organism and the object, the adaptive requirements for approach or avoidance become essentially independent of the specific object—allowing us to talk about more general systems of approach and avoidance that are separate from specific consummatory and defensive reactions. Evolution, therefore, has shaped what can be seen as two general systems dedicated to approach and avoidance, respectively; reflecting the fundamental nature of these systems, they are represented in the major traits of personality.

1.1. Positive and Negative Goals

An important concept in dealing with mammalian approach and avoidance systems is the idea that they process goal representations. The nature of this internal representation needs some explanation and should be kept completely separate from the “goals” that people often attribute to behaviors in terms of external function (obtaining the food at the end of the runway) or evolutionary explanations (achieving survival).

The simplest approach behaviors can be controlled by the detection of gradients rather than by goal representations. A bacterium will approach food through the detection of, for example, chemical gradients in its immediate environment. It has receptors that can detect the strength of a signal (you can think of this as a smell or taste with chemicals) and move in the direction of increasing signal strength. Similarly, a simple multicelled organism can essentially scan gradients of physical stimuli by taking a twisting path through its environment or, when it is close to the source, by wagging its head or body. It then heads in the direction where the signal is strongest, which should ultimately lead it to its food even though it has no information as to the particular location at which it will ultimately arrive. Avoidance behavior can also be governed by gradients. For many organisms, being in the light is dangerous. So even simple detection of light strength allows the organism to move in the opposite direction and find safety (Figure 1).

These kinds of movement, controlled by a local gradient, are called “taxes”³ (pronounced tack-seize). Taxes are often taken to involve a reaction to only very simple stimulus aspects—so that light intensity (as in Figure 1) would be included but visual stimuli that depend on form would not.^3,4 Critically, taxes are not goal-directed in the sense that the series of individual behavioral steps are not determined by a single internal representation of their endpoint. Although each behavioral step can be viewed with the goal of reducing the current light level, the final point at which the animal comes to a halt is simply the point at which such a sequence self-terminates and is not represented internally. That is, the maggot follows a path determined by the local gradients even if that is a circuitous route and does not terminate in the darkest place in the environment, whereas a rat controlled by a goal-representation will often take a straight-line path through a strongly lit area to reach the darkest area. So, as external observers, we can often see taxes as causing an organism to reach a “goal” (in a functional and/or evolutionary sen...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section I. Introduction
• Section II. Perspectives on the Neural Basis of Personality and Dispositions
• Section III. Brain Imaging Perspectives on Understanding the Self and Others: From Perception to Social Cognition
• Section IV. Brain Imaging Perspectives On Affect And Emotion Regulation
• Section V. Brain Imaging Perspectives On The Basis Of Prosociability
• Section VI. Brain Imaging and Society
• Index