Distance and grid-like codes support the navigation of abstract social space in the human brain
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, China
Figures
Figure 1 with 4 supplements
Experimental design and behavioral performance.
(A) Visual analogs illustrating each avatar’s social values. The height of the left bars signals values on the competence dimension, while the height of the right bars signals trustworthiness. …
Figure 1—figure supplement 1
Behavioral training tasks.
(A) Schematic illustration of the investment game and its relation to the competence and trustworthiness dimensions. (B–D) Example screenshot of match, explore, and collect task. (E) Timeline of …
Figure 1—figure supplement 2
Distribution of trajectory direction (theta) in the recall task in the scanner.
Trajectory directions from all four runs were divided into 20 bins to plot histogram. The angle of polar plot indicates the trajectory direction, and the distance from the center indicates the …
Figure 1—figure supplement 3
Distribution of trajectory length (travelled distance) in the recall task in the scanner.
Trajectory lengths from all four runs were divided into 20 bins to plot histogram.
Figure 1—animation 1
Recall task morph stage.
Figure 2
Neural representation of Euclidean distance on the social value map.
(A) Activity in the bilateral precuneus positively correlated with traveled Euclidean distance. (B) Activity in bilateral fusiform and the right middle occipital gyrus negatively correlated with …
Figure 3 with 5 supplements
Evidence of grid-like activity aligned to putative grid orientation in the right frontal pole and the right posterior–medial entorhinal cortex.
(A) Theoretical prediction of grid-like activity. (B, C) Regions of interest (ROIs) for deriving putative grid orientations: (B) right FP ROI from quadrature filter analysis showing sensitivity to …
Figure 3—figure supplement 1
Analysis pipeline of multivariate pattern analysis in entorhinal region of interest (ROI).
(A) Signals from four subregions of entorhinal cortex were extracted. (B) Model-based analysis hexagonal consistency effect in the entorhinal subregions. (C) Model-free analysis (angle independent) …
Figure 3—figure supplement 2
Region of interest (ROI) analysis of univariate and multivariate grid-like code in the entorhinal cortex.
(A) Z-transformed F statistics of hexagonal modulation effect in the entorhinal subregions in comparison with the frontal pole ROI. (B) Hexagonal consistency effect in the entorhinal subregions. (C) …
Figure 3—figure supplement 3
Distribution of voxel-wise grid orientation of example participants (voxel-wise distribution plot of all participants can be viewed at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.08637).
(A) in the right Frontal Pole ROI; (B) in the right posterior-medial EC ROI. Blue number indicates voxel count in the bin with most voxels.
Figure 3—figure supplement 4
Distribution of grid orientation across participants.
Each point is the estimated grid orientation in a given estimating set in a given region of interest (ROI) for one participant.
Figure 3—figure supplement 5
Relationship between temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and the strength of evidence of hexagonal modulation effect in frontal pole and entorhinal regions of interest (ROIs).
(A) Across participants, mean tSNR in the right frontal pole ROI is higher than all four subregions of entorhinal cortex. (B) Across participants, in each of the five ROIs, its mean tSNR is not …
Figure 4 with 1 supplement
Behavioral relevance of hexagonal consistency effect.
(A, B) Higher hexagonal consistency in temporal lobe aligned to grid orientation of (A) right FP region of interest (ROI) and (B) right pmEC significantly correlated with stronger distance effect in …
Figure 4—figure supplement 1
No evidence of correlation between grid-like (A) and distance (B) representation and performance in the scanner.
The number in each grid indicates Pearson correlation coefficient between a pair of behavioral and neural variable, and color indicates p-value result from statistical test (false discovery rate …
Author response image 1
Author response image 2
Tables
Table 1
Related to Figure 1H.
| A. Linear mixed effect model for different rating items | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competence | Trustworthiness | Attractiveness | |||
| (Intercept) | 5.157 *** [4.775, 5.539] | 5.614 *** [5.276, 5.951] | 4.590 *** [4.168, 5.011] | ||
| Post vs pre | –2.173 *** [–2.707, –1.639] | –1.998 *** [-2.469,–1.527] | –0.828 ** [–1.364, –0.292] | ||
| Avatar | –0.395 [–1.024, 0.234] | –0.637 * [–1.240, –0.034] | –0.281 [–0.710, 0.149] | ||
| avatar * (post vs pre) | 4.812 *** [3.923, 5.702] | 5.185 *** [4.333, 6.038] | 1.964 *** [1.357, 2.572] | ||
| N (observation) | 456 | 456 | 456 | ||
| N (id) | 38 | 38 | 38 | ||
| AIC | 1600.834 | 1589.456 | 1808.221 | ||
| BIC | 1625.569 | 1614.191 | 1832.956 | ||
| R2 (fixed) | 0.302 | 0.337 | 0.129 | ||
| R2 (total) | 0.313 | 0.347 | 0.223 | ||
| B. Follow-up analysis of interaction term in mixed effect models: simple slope of avatars in different sessions | |||||
| Rating item | Moderator levels session | Estimate [lower CI, upper CI] | SE | t (415) | p |
| Competence | Pre-experiment | –0.395 [-1.026, 0.236] | 0.321 | –1.231 | 0.89 |
| Post-experiment | 4.417 [3.786, 5.048] | 0.321 | 13.766 | <0.001 | |
| Trustworthiness | Pre-experiment | –0.637 [-1.241, 0.032] | 0.308 | –2.069 | 0.98 |
| Post-experiment | 4.549 [3.944, 5.154] | 0.308 | 14.787 | <0.001 | |
| Attractiveness | Pre-experiment | –0.281 [-0.711, 0.150] | 0.219 | –1.281 | 0.9 |
| Post-experiment | 1.684 [1.253, 2.114] | 0.219 | 7.684 | <0.001 | |
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Statistic results for right-sided t-test against zero (noninferiority).
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AIC=Akaike Information Criterion；MNI=Montreal Neurological Institute；ACC=Anterior Cingulate Cortex；FWE=Family Wise Error；DMN=Default Mode Network，SAD=Social Anxiety Disorder；BIC=Bayesian Information Criterion.
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*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.
Table 2
Related to Figure 2.
Neural codes represent traveled distance on the social value map.
| Anatomical description | Hemisphere | Peak MNI coordinates | Peak t-value | Cluster | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x | y | z | Size | pFWE | |||
| A. Regions positively correlated with traveled distance | |||||||
| Precuneus | R | 12 | –56 | 26 | 4.53 | 151 | 0.054 |
| Precuneus | L | –12 | –54 | 18 | 4.952 | 134 | 0.082 |
| B. Regions negatively correlated with traveled distance | |||||||
| Fusiform | R | 36 | –48 | 20 | 4.53 | 766 | <0.001 |
| Fusiform | L | –38 | –56 | –10 | 4.952 | 234 | 0.008 |
| Middle occipital gyrus | R | 42 | –80 | 8 | 4.952 | 196 | 0.018 |
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L, left; R, right.
Table 3
Regions showing hexagonal modulation (GLM1).
| Anatomical description | Hemisphere | Peak coordinates (MNI) | Peakt-value | Cluster | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x | y | z | Size | pFWE | |||
| Superior parietal gyrus | R | 28 | –66 | 56 | 5.021 | 522 | <0.001 |
| Precuneus | L | -6 | –46 | 38 | 5.707 | 426 | <0.001 |
| Middle frontal gyrus | R | 42 | 24 | 34 | 5.221 | 271 | <0.001 |
| Paracentral Lobule | R | 10 | –36 | 68 | 4.835 | 120 | <0.001 |
| Middle frontal gyrus | R | 38 | 42 | 30 | 4.849 | 103 | 0.001 |
| Frontal pole | L | –26 | 50 | 0 | 4.269 | 71 | 0.014 |
| Frontal pole | R | 26 | 52 | -2 | 4.494 | 69 | 0.017 |
| Angular | L | –52 | –60 | 26 | 4.718 | 58 | 0.041 |
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L, left; R, right.
Table 4
Related to Figure 3—figure supplement 5C.
Group-level Wilcoxon signed-rank test of correlation between voxel-wise temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and the Z-statistics of hexagonal modulation effect in frontal pole and entorhinal …
| ROIs | N | Test statistics | p |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right frontal pole | 38 | 268.000 | 0.140 |
| Left anterior–lateral entorhinal cortex | 38 | 331.000 | 0.572 |
| Right anterior–lateral entorhinal cortex | 38 | 415.000 | 0.528 |
| Left posterior–medial entorhinal cortex | 38 | 396.500 | 0.712 |
| Right posterior–medial entorhinal cortex | 38 | 433.000 | 0.369 |
