Investigation of effects on social causal attribution in primates due to cortical network impairment

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K07800
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 51020:Cognitive and brain science-related
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: Adachi Yusuke 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 助教 (40625646)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 認知神経科学 / マカクザル / 大脳皮質

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When we experience good or bad events, we attribute the causes to self, other persons, or other entities. To investigate the neural basis of social causal attribution, we have constructed a behavioral task in which macaque monkeys were imposed to judge the causes of events involving self or other conspecific, to understand the causal structure of the events, and to update the understanding when the causal structure was changed. The monkeys were able to understand and update the causal structure through their own judgments, and we also obtained results suggesting interactions with others in causal attribution of monkeys about the effects of experiencing other’s judgments on their own understandings of the causal structure and the effects of whether self, other, or virtual agents were involved in the events on the tendencies in their judgments.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

出来事の原因を自己や他者に帰属することはわれわれの日常的な自己理解・他者理解における重要な認知過程であり、また統合失調症などの精神疾患では原因帰属に偏りが生じることが知られている。非ヒト霊長類の社会的な原因帰属における他個体との相互作用に関する本研究の方法論や知見は、サルにおける社会的認知行動の理解への寄与に加え、動物にのみ適用可能な計測手法・介入手法による社会的認知機能や精神疾患の解明につながると考えている。