Papers by Kristína Czekóová
A neuroscientific evaluation of driver rehabilitation: Functional neuroimaging demonstrates the effectiveness of empathy induction in altering brain responses during social information processing
PLOS ONE
Getting into sync: Data‐driven analyses reveal patterns of neural coupling that distinguish among different social exchanges
Human Brain Mapping
Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis
Frontiers in Neurology
Dissecting social interaction: dual-fMRI reveals patterns of interpersonal brain-behavior relationships that dissociate among dimensions of social exchange
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Social decision-making in the brain: Input-state-output modelling reveals patterns of effective connectivity underlying reciprocal choices
Human Brain Mapping
A dual-fMRI investigation of the iterated Ultimatum Game reveals that reciprocal behaviour is associated with neural alignment
Scientific reports, Jan 18, 2018
Dyadic interactions often involve a dynamic process of mutual reciprocity; to steer a series of e... more Dyadic interactions often involve a dynamic process of mutual reciprocity; to steer a series of exchanges towards a desired outcome, both interactants must adapt their own behaviour according to that of their interaction partner. Understanding the brain processes behind such bidirectional reciprocity is therefore central to social neuroscience, but this requires measurement of both individuals' brains during real-world exchanges. We achieved this by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on pairs of male individuals simultaneously while they interacted in a modified iterated Ultimatum Game (iUG). In this modification, both players could express their intent and maximise their own monetary gain by reciprocating their partner's behaviour - they could promote generosity through cooperation and/or discourage unfair play with retaliation. By developing a novel model of reciprocity adapted from behavioural economics, we then show that each player's choices can...
Theory of Mind Skills Are Related to Resting-State Frontolimbic Connectivity in Schizophrenia
Brain connectivity, 2018
Patients with schizophrenia (SCH) often demonstrate impairment in social-cognitive functions as w... more Patients with schizophrenia (SCH) often demonstrate impairment in social-cognitive functions as well as disturbances in large-scale network connectivity. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a core region of the default mode network, with projections to limbic structures. It plays an important role in social and emotional decision-making. We investigated whether resting-state functional connectivity (FC) relates to the cognitive and affective domains of theory of mind (ToM). Twenty-three SCH patients and 19 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. vmPFC seed connectivity was correlated with behavioral measures assessing ToM domains. SCH performed less well than HCs in both ToM task domains. An analysis of the resting-state FC revealed that SCH had reduced connectivity from the vmPFC to the subcallosal cortex, right amygdala, and right hippocampus as a function of behavioral scores in both ToM domains. Within-group analys...
Personality Systems, Spirituality, and Existential Well-Being: A Person-Centered Perspective
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
Social cognition and idiopathic isolated cervical dystonia
Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996), Jan 25, 2017
For a long time, cervical dystonia (CD) has been characterised only by disturbances in motor func... more For a long time, cervical dystonia (CD) has been characterised only by disturbances in motor functioning. Despite accumulating evidence for symptomatology in various non-motor domains, to date no study has investigated social cognition in CD. The aim of this study was to compare performance of CD patients and healthy controls in neurocognitive and socio-cognitive domain. Twenty-five non-depressed patients with CD and 26 healthy controls underwent neuropsychological testing. This involved assessment of cognitive status (general intellect, verbal memory, and executive function), and socio-cognitive functions using a Theory of mind task and self-report on empathy and emotion regulation. In comparison to controls, CD patients displayed significantly decreased cognitive abilities, particularly in executive function and verbal memory tasks. Difficulties in inferring mental states on both cognitive and affective levels were also observed. The largest discrepancies were detected in understa...
Impulse control disorders in patients with young-onset Parkinson’s disease: A cross-sectional study seeking associated factors
Basal Ganglia, 2016
Orthogonal-compatibility effects confound automatic imitation: implications for measuring self-other distinction
Psychological research, Jan 17, 2016
Accurate distinction between self and other representations is fundamental to a range of social c... more Accurate distinction between self and other representations is fundamental to a range of social cognitive capacities, and understanding individual differences in this ability is an important aim for psychological research. This demands accurate measures of self-other distinction (SOD). The present study examined an experimental paradigm employed frequently to measure SOD in the action domain; specifically, we evaluated the rotated finger-action stimuli used increasingly to measure automatic imitation (AI). To assess the suitability of these stimuli, we compared AI elicited by different action stimuli to the performance on a perspective-taking task believed to measure SOD in the perception domain. In two separate experiments we reveal three important findings: firstly, we demonstrate a strong confounding influence of orthogonal-compatibility effects on AI elicited by certain rotated stimuli. Second, we demonstrate the potential for this confounding influence to mask important relatio...
What's the meaning of this? A behavioral and neurophysiological investigation into the principles behind the classification of visual emotional stimuli
Psychophysiology, Aug 21, 2016
Two experiments were performed to investigate the principles by which emotional stimuli are class... more Two experiments were performed to investigate the principles by which emotional stimuli are classified on the dimensions of valence and arousal. In Experiment 1, a large sample of healthy participants rated emotional stimuli according to both broad dimensions. Hierarchical cluster analyses performed on these ratings revealed that stimuli were clustered according to their semantic content at the beginning of the agglomerative process. Example semantic themes include food, violence, nudes, death, and objects. Importantly, this pattern occurred in a parallel fashion for ratings on both dimensions. In Experiment 2, we investigated if the same semantic clusters were differentiated at the neurophysiological level. Intracerebral EEG was recorded from 18 patients with intractable epilepsy who viewed the same set of stimuli. Not only did electrocortical responses differentiate between these data-defined semantic clusters, they converged with the behavioral measurements to highlight the impor...
W9.4 Iowa gambling task in patients with Parkinson's disease without a history of pathological gambling: strategy analysis and neural correlates revealed by functional imaging
Clinical Neurophysiology, 2011
Social cognition and idiopathic isolated cervical dystonia
Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996), Jan 25, 2017
For a long time, cervical dystonia (CD) has been characterised only by disturbances in motor func... more For a long time, cervical dystonia (CD) has been characterised only by disturbances in motor functioning. Despite accumulating evidence for symptomatology in various non-motor domains, to date no study has investigated social cognition in CD. The aim of this study was to compare performance of CD patients and healthy controls in neurocognitive and socio-cognitive domain. Twenty-five non-depressed patients with CD and 26 healthy controls underwent neuropsychological testing. This involved assessment of cognitive status (general intellect, verbal memory, and executive function), and socio-cognitive functions using a Theory of mind task and self-report on empathy and emotion regulation. In comparison to controls, CD patients displayed significantly decreased cognitive abilities, particularly in executive function and verbal memory tasks. Difficulties in inferring mental states on both cognitive and affective levels were also observed. The largest discrepancies were detected in understa...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015
The aim of this study was to investigate if and how temporal context influences subjective affect... more The aim of this study was to investigate if and how temporal context influences subjective affective responses to emotional images. To do so, we examined whether the subjective evaluation of a target image is influenced by the valence of its preceding image, and/or its overall position in a sequence of images. Furthermore, we assessed if these potentially confounding contextual effects can be moderated by a common procedural control: randomized stimulus presentation. Four groups of participants evaluated the same set of 120 pictures from the International Affective System (IAPS) presented in four different sequences. Our data reveal strong effects of both aspects of temporal context in all presentation sequences, modified only slightly in their nature and magnitude. Furthermore, this was true for both valence and arousal ratings. Subjective ratings of negative target images were influenced by temporal context most strongly across all sequences. We also observed important gender differences: females expressed greater sensitivity to temporal-context effects and design manipulations relative to males, especially for negative images. Our results have important implications for future emotion research that employs normative picture stimuli, and contributes to our understanding of context effects in general.
PLoS ONE, 2013
Moving in a co-ordinated fashion with another individual changes our behaviour towards them; we t... more Moving in a co-ordinated fashion with another individual changes our behaviour towards them; we tend to like them more, find them more attractive, and are more willing to co-operate with them. It is generally assumed that this effect on behaviour results from alterations in representations of self and others. Specifically, through neurophysiological perceptionaction matching mechanisms, interpersonal motor co-ordination (IMC) is believed to forge a neural coupling between actor and observer, which serves to blur boundaries in conceptual self-other representations and causes positive views of the self to be projected onto others. An investigation into this potential neural mechanism is lacking, however. Moreover, the specific components of IMC that might influence this mechanism have not yet been specified. In the present study we exploited a robust behavioural phenomenon -automatic imitation -to assess the degree to which IMC influences neural action observation-execution matching mechanisms. This revealed that automatic imitation is reduced when the actions of another individual are perceived to be synchronised in time, but are spatially incongruent, with our own. We interpret our findings as evidence that IMC does indeed exert an effect on neural perception-action matching mechanisms, but this serves to promote better self-other distinction. Our findings demonstrate that further investigation is required to understand the complex relationship between neural perception-action coupling, conceptual self-other representations, and social behaviour.
Neurological Sciences, 2012
The aim of our study was to analyse decision making in early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) patie... more The aim of our study was to analyse decision making in early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) patients performing the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). We compared 19 patients with early-onset PD (B45 years) on dopaminergic medication (no evidence of depression, dementia, executive dysfunction according to the Tower of London test and the Stroop test, or pathological gambling) with 20 age-matched controls. A computer version of the IGT was employed. The PD patients achieved slightly lower IGT scores than the control group. A detailed analysis based on 'shift frequencies' between the individual decks showed that the patients tended to change their preferences for the decks more frequently, with a higher preference for the 'disadvantageous' deck B. Control subjects seemed to develop a more effective strategy. These differences could be caused by the poorer ability of the patients to develop any strategy at all. We observed changes in decision making during IGT performance in patients with earlyonset PD, although they had no executive dysfunction as measured by established neuropsychological tests. The more detailed analysis employed in the present study could lead to a more accurate study of IGT performance and application of IGT in clinical practice.
Exploring the Development of the Mirror Neuron System: Finding the Right Paradigm
Developmental Neuropsychology, 2013
Due to its ability to map an observed action onto the observer&am... more Due to its ability to map an observed action onto the observer's own cortical motor circuits, the mirror neuron system (MNS) has been implicated in many facets of social cognition. As such, achieving an understanding of the typical development of this intriguing brain system seems obvious. Only now, however, are studies attempting to explore the processes and principles behind the emergence of the MNS. This article critically reviews a number of experimental paradigms employed in this endeavor. We conclude by suggesting that future neuroscientific investigations should incorporate a response-stimulus procedure, whereby action execution results in, not from, novel sensory stimuli.
Functional anatomy of outcome evaluation during Iowa Gambling Task performance in patients with Parkinson’s disease: an fMRI study
Neurological Sciences, 2013
The aim of this study was to investigate the functional anatomy of decision-making during the Iow... more The aim of this study was to investigate the functional anatomy of decision-making during the Iowa Gambling Task in patients with Parkinson's disease. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a computerized version of IGT to compare 18 PD patients on dopaminergic medication in the ON state and 18 healthy control subjects. Our analyses focused on outcome evaluation following card selection, because we expected this aspect of decision-making to be impaired in PD patients. The PD patients exhibited lower activation of the left putamen than the control group as a reaction to penalty. Using psychophysiological interaction analysis, we identified decreased functional connectivity between the right globus pallidus internus and the left anterior cingulate gyrus in the PD group. In contrast, increased connectivity between these structures was observed after penalty in the control group. Our results suggest altered functioning of the basal ganglia and their connections with the cortical structures involved in the limbic loop (e.g., the limbic fronto-striatal circuit of the basal ganglia) during decision-making in PD patients. Differences in the response to loss could be associated with insufficient negative reinforcement after a loss in PD patients in the ON state in comparison to a healthy population.
Uploads
Papers by Kristína Czekóová