L-DOPA and oxytocin influence the neural correlates of performance monitoring for self and others.

Rationale: The ability to monitor the consequences of our actions for others is imperative for flexible and adaptive behavior, and allows us to act in a (pro)social manner. Yet, little is known about the neurochemical mechanisms underlying alterations in (pro)social performance monitoring.

Objective: The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to improve our understanding of the role of dopamine and oxytocin and their potential overlap in the neural mechanisms underlying performance monitoring for own versus others' outcomes.

Empathy and mentalizing abilities in relation to psychosocial stress in healthy adult men and women.

Stress has many consequences for our wellbeing, both physically and psychologically, underscoring the need to study markers of differential sensitivity to stressful situations. We examined associations between empathy and mentalizing abilities and psycho-physiological responses to a psychosocial stress task. We conducted two highly comparable studies, the first in men (N = 52) and the second in women (N = 72).

Self-centered or other-directed: Neural correlates of performance monitoring are dependent on psychopathic traits and social context.

Performing in a social context can result in negative feelings when our actions harm another person, but it can also lead to positive feelings when observing an opponent fail. The extent to which individuals scoring high on psychopathic traits, often characterized as self-centered with reduced concern for others' welfare, are sensitive to own and others' success and failure is yet unknown. However, knowledge about these processes is crucial for comprehending how these traits are involved in understanding ourselves and others during social interactions.

Social Cognition and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Review of Subdomains of Social Functioning.

Disturbances in social cognitive processes such as the ability to infer others' mental states importantly contribute to social and functional impairments in psychiatric disorders. Yet, despite established social, emotional, and cognitive problems, the role of social cognition in obsessive-compulsive disorder is largely overlooked. The current review provides a first comprehensive overview of social (neuro)cognitive disturbances in adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Enhanced error-related brain activations for mistakes that harm others: ERP evidence from a novel social performance-monitoring paradigm.

Our mistakes often have negative consequences for ourselves, but may also harm the people around us. Continuous monitoring of our performance is therefore crucial for both our own and others' well-being. Here, we investigated how modulations in responsibility for other's harm affects electrophysiological correlates of performance-monitoring, viz.

Neural Mechanisms Involved in Social Conformity and Psychopathic Traits: Prediction Errors, Reward Processing and Saliency.

Aligning behavior in favor of group norms, i.e., social conformity, can help to successfully adapt to uncertain environments and may result in social approval.

Intergenerational Stability of Callous-Unemotional Traits.

This study investigated the stability of callous and unemotional (CU) traits across generations by assessing self-report assessments of psychopathy factors in parents and their relationship to children's CU traits in a clinical sample: 223 boys (M age = 7.65) and 83 girls (M = 7.35) referred for treatment of disruptive behavior disorders.

Assessing Empathy across Childhood and Adolescence: Validation of the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA).

Empathy plays a crucial role in healthy social functioning and in maintaining positive social relationships. In this study, 1250 children and adolescents (10-15 year olds) completed the newly developed Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA) that was tested on reliability, construct validity, convergent validity, and concurrent validity. The EmQue-CA aims to assess empathy using the following scales: , and .

Training in the adolescent brain: An fMRI training study on divergent thinking.

Prior research suggests that adolescence is a time of enhanced sensitivity for practice and learning. In this study we tested the neural correlates of divergent thinking training in 15- to 16-year-old adolescents relative to an age-matched active control group. All participants performed an alternative uses task, a valid measure to test divergent thinking, while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) images were acquired before and after a training program.

The Prosocial Cyberball Game: Compensating for social exclusion and its associations with empathic concern and bullying in adolescents.

In this study we examined prosocial compensating behavior towards socially excluded ingroup and outgroup members by using a 'Prosocial Cyberball Game' in 9-17 year old Dutch adolescents (N = 133). Results showed that adolescents compensated for the social exclusion of an unknown peer in a virtual ball tossing game, by tossing the ball more often to that player in compensation conditions compared to the fair play condition. The proportion of tosses towards the excluded player did not significantly differ as a function of the group status of that player.

A longitudinal analysis of neural regions involved in reading the mind in the eyes.

The ability to perceive social intentions from people's eyes is present from an early age, yet little is known about whether this skill is fully developed in childhood or that subtle changes may still occur across adolescence. This fMRI study investigated the ability to read mental states by using an adapted version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task within adolescents (aged 12-19 years) over a 2-year test-retest interval. This longitudinal setup provides the opportunity to study both stability over time as well as age-related changes.

Behavior and neural correlates of empathy in adolescents.

This study examined neural correlates of empathy in adolescence while observing harmful acts. A total of 32 participants (aged 12-19 years) viewed pictures depicting negative (offenders inflicting intentional harm) and positive (friends socializing) social situations. After viewing each picture, participants could allocate hypothetical points to either the offender or the victim in a dictator game.

A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of reward-related brain activation: effects of age, pubertal stage, and reward sensitivity.

Neurobiological models suggest that adolescents are driven by an overactive ventral striatum (VS) response to rewards that may lead to an adolescent increase in risk-taking behavior. However, empirical studies showed mixed findings of adolescents' brain response to rewards. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the relationship between reward-related brain activation and risky decision-making.

Fairness considerations when I know more than you do: developmental comparisons.

The Ultimatum Game (UG) is a valuable paradigm to study fairness considerations. Here, we tested developmental differences between altruistic and strategic motivations in fairness considerations using a version of the UG with hidden conditions. Participants were proposers and could divide coins between themselves and an anonymous other.

Testosterone levels correspond with increased ventral striatum activation in response to monetary rewards in adolescents.

Risk taking is an integral part of learning and development, particularly during adolescence the prevalence of risky behaviors peak. It is hypothesized that the tendency to take risks is related to pubertal maturation, where there is interplay between gonadal hormones, the neural mechanisms that underlie affective (e.g.