Interoception, the perception of our body internal signals, plays a key role in maintaining homeostasis and guiding our behavior. Sometimes, we become aware of our body signals and use them in planning and strategic thinking. Here, we show behavioral and neural dissociations between learning to follow one's own heartbeat and metacognitive awareness of one's performance, in a heartbeat-tapping task performed before and after auditory feedback. The electroencephalography amplitude of the heartbeat-evoked potential in interoceptive learners, that is, participants whose accuracy of tapping to their heartbeat improved after auditory feedback, was higher compared with non-learners. However, an increase in gamma phase synchrony (30–45 Hz) after the heartbeat auditory feedback was present only in those participants showing agreement between objective interoceptive performance and metacognitive awareness. Source localization in a group of participants and direct cortical recordings in a single patient identified a network hub for interoceptive learning in the insular cortex. In summary, interoceptive learning may be mediated by the right insular response to the heartbeat, whereas metacognitive awareness of learning may be mediated by widespread cortical synchronization patterns.

Social cognitive neuroscience is a recent interdisciplinary field that studies the neural basis of the social mind. Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide precise information about the time dynamics of the brain. In this study, we assess the role of ERPs in cognitive neuroscience, particularly in the emerging area of social neuroscience. First, we briefly introduce the technique of ERPs. Subsequently, we describe several ERP components (P1, N1, N170, vertex positive potential, early posterior negativity, N2, P2, P3, N400, N400-like, late positive complex, late positive potential, P600, error-related negativity, feedback error-related negativity, contingent negative variation, readiness potential, lateralized readiness potential, motor potential, re-afferent potential) that assess perceptual, cognitive, and motor processing. Then, we introduce ERP studies in social neuroscience on contextual effects on speech, emotional processing, empathy, and decision making. We provide an outline of ERPs' relevance and applications in the field of social cognitive neuroscience. We also introduce important methodological issues that extend classical ERP research, such as intracranial recordings (iERP) and source location in dense arrays and simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings. Further, this review discusses possible caveats of the ERP question assessment on neuroanatomical areas, biophysical origin, and methodological problems, and their relevance to explanatory pluralism and multilevel, contextual, and situated approaches to social neuroscience.

While fluid intelligence has proved to be central to executive functioning, logical reasoning and other frontal functions, the role of this ability in psychosocial adaptation has not been well characterized. A random-probabilistic sample of 2370 secondary school students completed measures of fluid intelligence (Raven's Progressive Matrices, RPM) and several measures of psychological adaptation: bullying (Delaware Bullying Questionnaire), domestic abuse of adolescents (Conflict Tactic Scale), drug intake (ONUDD), self-esteem (Rosenberg's Self Esteem Scale) and the Perceived Mental Health Scale (Spanish adaptation). Lower fluid intelligence scores were associated with physical violence, both in the role of victim and victimizer. Drug intake, especially cannabis, cocaine and inhalants and lower self-esteem were also associated with lower fluid intelligence. Finally, scores on the perceived mental health assessment were better when fluid intelligence scores were higher. Our results show evidence of a strong association between psychosocial adaptation and fluid intelligence, suggesting that the latter is not only central to executive functioning but also forms part of a more general capacity for adaptation to social contexts.

The present study examined neural responses associated with moral sensitivity in adolescents with a background of early social deprivation. Using high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG), brain activity was measured during an intentional inference task, which assesses rapid moral decision-making regarding intentional or unintentional harm to people and objects. We compared the responses to this task in a socially deprived group (DG) with that of a control group (CG). The event-related potentials (ERPs) results showed atypical early and late frontal cortical markers associated with attribution of intentionality during moral decision-making in DG (especially regarding intentional harm to people). The source space of the hdEEG showed reduced activity for DG compared with CG in the right prefrontal cortex, bilaterally in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and right insula. Moreover, the reduced response in vmPFC for DG was predicted by higher rates of externalizing problems. These findings demonstrate the importance of the social environment in early moral development, supporting a prefrontal maturation model of social deprivation.

Studies on bilingual word reading and translation have examined the effects of lexical variables (e.g., concreteness, cognate status) by comparing groups of non-translators with varying levels of L2 proficiency. However, little attention has been paid to another relevant factor: translation expertise (TI). To explore this issue, we administered word reading and translation tasks to two groups of non-translators possessing different levels of informal TI (Experiment 1), and to three groups of bilinguals possessing different levels of translation training (Experiment 2). Reaction-time recordings showed that in all groups reading was faster than translation and unaffected by concreteness and cognate effects. Conversely, in both experiments, all groups translated concrete and cognate words faster than abstract and non-cognate words, respectively. Notably, an advantage of backward over forward translation was observed only for low-proficiency non-translators (in Experiment 1). Also, in Experiment 2, the modifications induced by translation expertise were more marked in the early than in the late stages of training and practice. The results suggest that TI contributes to modulating inter-equivalent connections in bilingual memory.