Social training reconfigures prediction errors to shape Self-Other boundaries.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Attributing beliefs to specific agents is crucial for social cognition.
• Agent-specific neural circuits may support this ability, but their development is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if the agent-specificity of neural circuits adapts to social context.
• To explore how social learning experiences influence self-other distinctions in the brain.

Main Methods:

• Subjects trained on social learning tasks with varied self/other information exposure.
• Measured changes in prediction error (PE) circuit agent-specificity.
• Assessed correlation with ventromedial prefrontal myelin density (magnetisation transfer).
• Evaluated impact on perspective-taking in an independent task.

Main Results:

• Training altered PE circuit agent-specificity for at least 24 hours.
• This modulation affected how much another agent's PE was perceived as one's own.
• Myelin density in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex correlated with adaptation strength.
• A frontotemporal learning network was identified.

Conclusions:

• Self-other boundaries are learnable and shaped by social experiences.
• Neural circuits adapt to social context, influencing social reasoning and perspective-taking.
• Brain structure, specifically myelin density, relates to the flexibility of self-other representations.