Social

Cogni+on in Ac+on Predic+on:

A preliminary high-density EEG study
Andrea Riquelme-Esteve, Carlos Guerrero-Mosquera, Nria Sebas+n-Galls
Center for Brain and Cogni+on, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

andrea.riquelme@upf.edu

INTRODUCTION
Successful social interac/ons depend on the ability to track the mental states of others and predict their behavior (Theory of Mind). However, there are
cues that bias peoples social percep/on and induce them to form certain alia/ons with par/cular others. Based on a previous research (Southgate &
VerneF, 2014), here we inves/gate if the predic/on of an ac/on can be modulated by actors social status and language spoken. The indica/on of
ac/on predic/on is assessed by a false belief task performed by agents with three dierent social proles, analyzing the sensorimotor suppression of
mu (8-13 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) frequency bands as a measure of motor cortex ac/va/on.

METHODS
Paradigm setup:
False belief task based on agents belief (A) and observers belief (O).

Par/cipants: 10 female par/cipants

Region of interest: 8 channels SMA
Ac/on predic/on in TP and FP condi/ons

EEG Data acquisi/on and processing:

Geodesic EEG System

Matlab Fieldtrip package

Data acquisi+on

Raw data preprocessing

Time-frequency analysis

Feature extrac+ons

Clustering analysis

hdEEG (128 channels)

Band-pass ltering/ ICA

Evoked/Induced Power

Power spectral features

Based on PSD features

RESULTS II: Beta band (15-30 Hz)

RESULTS I: Mu band (8-13 Hz)

Baseline

TP

TN

FP

FN

- 2

PSD prole comparison

B1



B2


B3


Black dots indicate posi/ons of selected electrodes by
clustering.

Clustering analysis showed a main cluster of mu ac/vity over the SMA.
Channels selected were 7, 31, 80 and 106.
Contrary to was what expected, there was no clear mu suppression in the
TP and FP condi/ons as a result of an ac/on predic/on.
Even there was dierent motor ac/va/on across proles (B1, B2 and B3),
we did not observe any clear paUern of ac/vity.
- -4

Baseline

TP

TN

FP

FN

- 0.5

PSD prole comparison

B1



B2



B3

Black dots indicate posi/ons of selected electrodes by

clustering.

We observed the same clustering paUern of beta ac/vity over the SMA.
Channels selected were 7, 30, 31, 37, 80, 87, 105 and 106.
Similarly, we did not nd any beta suppression during the predic/on of
the ac/on.
We could not nd any paUern between dierent social proles (B1, B2
and B3).
- -0.5

DISCUSSION
Previous research has shown that there is a predisposi/on to interact with individuals perceived as members of our own linguis/c group, and with those
that posi/vely bias our social aUen/on inside the group. Unfortunately, the present study does not provide support for this asser/on.
However, at the methodological level and, more specically, considering the data analyses we have performed, this research provides evidence of
useful techniques in the analysis of EEG signal in the eld of social cogni/on.
REFERENCES:
Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & RizzolaS, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cogni+on. Trends in Cogni,ve Sciences, 8(9), 396-403.
RizzolaS, G., & Fabbri-Destro, M. (2008). The mirror system and its role in social cogni+on. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 18, 179-184.
Southgate, V., & VerneS, A. (2014). Belief-based ac+on predic+on in preverbal infants. Cogni,on, 130 (1), 1-10.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This research was funded by the following projects: PSI2015-66918-P (MINECO-FEDER)-UE and PREDICTABLE Grant Agreement 641858 H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014.