Publications

2012
Gyurak, A., Hooker, C. I., Miyakawa, A., Verosky, S., Luerssen, A., & Ayduk, Ö. N. (2012). Individual differences in neural responses to social rejection: the joint effect of self-esteem and attentional control. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci , 7 (3), 322-31.Abstract
Individuals with low self-esteem have been found to react more negatively to signs of interpersonal rejection than those with high self-esteem. However, previous research has found that individual differences in attentional control can attenuate negative reactions to social rejection among vulnerable, low self-esteem individuals. The current fMRI study sought to elucidate the neurobiological substrate of this buffering effect. We hypothesized and found that while looking at scenes of social rejection (vs negative scenes) low self-esteem high attentional control individuals engaged the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), an area of the brain associated with emotional control, more than their low self-esteem low attentional control peers. Furthermore, we found that low self-esteem high attentional control individuals evaluated social rejection as less arousing and less rejecting in a separate behavioral task. Importantly, activation in the rACC fully mediated the relationship between the interaction of self-esteem and attentional control and emotional evaluations, suggesting that the rACC activation underlies the buffering effects of attentional control. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in emotional vulnerability and protection and by highlighting the role of rACC in emotion regulation.
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Hooker, C. I., Bruce, L., Fisher, M., Verosky, S. C., Miyakawa, A., & Vinogradov, S. (2012). Neural activity during emotion recognition after combined cognitive plus social cognitive training in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res , 139 (1-3), 53-9.Abstract
Cognitive remediation training has been shown to improve both cognitive and social cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia, but the mechanisms that support this behavioral improvement are largely unknown. One hypothesis is that intensive behavioral training in cognition and/or social cognition restores the underlying neural mechanisms that support targeted skills. However, there is little research on the neural effects of cognitive remediation training. This study investigated whether a 50 h (10-week) remediation intervention which included both cognitive and social cognitive training would influence neural function in regions that support social cognition. Twenty-two stable, outpatient schizophrenia participants were randomized to a treatment condition consisting of auditory-based cognitive training (AT) [Brain Fitness Program/auditory module ~60 min/day] plus social cognition training (SCT) which was focused on emotion recognition [~5-15 min per day] or a placebo condition of non-specific computer games (CG) for an equal amount of time. Pre and post intervention assessments included an fMRI task of positive and negative facial emotion recognition, and standard behavioral assessments of cognition, emotion processing, and functional outcome. There were no significant intervention-related improvements in general cognition or functional outcome. fMRI results showed the predicted group-by-time interaction. Specifically, in comparison to CG, AT+SCT participants had a greater pre-to-post intervention increase in postcentral gyrus activity during emotion recognition of both positive and negative emotions. Furthermore, among all participants, the increase in postcentral gyrus activity predicted behavioral improvement on a standardized test of emotion processing (MSCEIT: Perceiving Emotions). Results indicate that combined cognition and social cognition training impacts neural mechanisms that support social cognition skills.
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2011
Germine, L. T., Garrido, L., Bruce, L., & Hooker, C. (2011). Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing. Neuroimage , 58 (3), 935-45.Abstract

Human beings are social organisms with an intrinsic desire to seek and participate in social interactions. Social anhedonia is a personality trait characterized by a reduced desire for social affiliation and reduced pleasure derived from interpersonal interactions. Abnormally high levels of social anhedonia prospectively predict the development of schizophrenia and contribute to poorer outcomes for schizophrenia patients. Despite the strong association between social anhedonia and schizophrenia, the neural mechanisms that underlie individual differences in social anhedonia have not been studied and are thus poorly understood. Deficits in face emotion recognition are related to poorer social outcomes in schizophrenia, and it has been suggested that face emotion recognition deficits may be a behavioral marker for schizophrenia liability. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see whether there are differences in the brain networks underlying basic face emotion processing in a community sample of individuals low vs. high in social anhedonia. We isolated the neural mechanisms related to face emotion processing by comparing face emotion discrimination with four other baseline conditions (identity discrimination of emotional faces, identity discrimination of neutral faces, object discrimination, and pattern discrimination). Results showed a group (high/low social anhedonia) × condition (emotion discrimination/control condition) interaction in the anterior portion of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex. As predicted, high (relative to low) social anhedonia participants showed less neural activity in face emotion processing regions during emotion discrimination as compared to each control condition. The findings suggest that social anhedonia is associated with abnormalities in networks responsible for basic processes associated with social cognition, and provide a starting point for understanding the neural basis of social motivation and our drive to seek social affiliation.

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Hooker, C. I., Bruce, L., Lincoln, S. H., Fisher, M., & Vinogradov, S. (2011). Theory of mind skills are related to gray matter volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry , 70 (12), 1169-78.Abstract

BACKGROUND: Among individuals with schizophrenia, deficits in theory of mind (ToM) skills predict poor social functioning. Therefore, identifying the neural basis of ToM may assist the development of treatments that improve social outcomes. Despite growing evidence that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) facilitates ToM skills among healthy individuals, methodological challenges, such as the influence of general cognitive deficits, have made it difficult to identify the relationship between ToM processing and VMPFC function in schizophrenia. METHODS: We used voxel-based morphometry and a multi-method behavioral assessment of ToM processing, including performance-based (Recognition of Faux Pas Test), self-report (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Perspective-Taking), and interview-rated (Quality of Life Scale-Empathy score) ToM assessments, to investigate whether ToM skills were related to VMPFC gray matter volume (GMV). Standardized neuropsychological measures were used to assess global cognition. Twenty-one schizophrenia and 17 healthy control subjects participated. RESULTS: Between-group behavioral analyses showed that, as compared with healthy participants, schizophrenia participants had worse ToM performance and lower self-reported ToM processing in daily life. The between-group analysis of GMV showed that schizophrenia participants had less VMPFC GMV than healthy participants. Moreover, among schizophrenia participants, all three measures of ToM processing were associated with VMPFC GMV, such that worse ToM skills were related to less VMPFC GMV. This association remained strong for self-reported and interview-rated ToM skills, even when controlling for the influence of global cognition. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that among individuals with schizophrenia, reduced VMPFC GMV is associated with deficits using ToM skills to enhance social relationships.

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Hooker, C. I., Tully, L. M., Verosky, S. C., Fisher, M., Holland, C., & Vinogradov, S. (2011). Can I trust you? Negative affective priming influences social judgments in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 120 (1), 98-107.Abstract

Successful social interactions rely on the ability to make accurate judgments based on social cues as well as the ability to control the influence of internal or external affective information on those judgments. Prior research suggests that individuals with schizophrenia misinterpret social stimuli and this misinterpretation contributes to impaired social functioning. We tested the hypothesis that for people with schizophrenia, social judgments are abnormally influenced by affective information. Twenty-three patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy control participants rated the trustworthiness of faces following the presentation of neutral, negative (threat-related), or positive affective primes. Results showed that all participants rated faces following negative affective primes as less trustworthy than faces following neutral or positive primes. Importantly, this effect was significantly more pronounced for participants with schizophrenia, suggesting that schizophrenia may be characterized by an exaggerated influence of negative affective information on social judgment. Furthermore, the extent that the negative affective prime influenced trustworthiness judgments was significantly associated with patients’ severity of positive symptoms, particularly feelings of persecution. These findings suggest that for people with schizophrenia, negative affective information contributes to an interpretive bias, consistent with paranoid ideation, when judging the trustworthiness of others. This bias may contribute to social impairments in schizophrenia.

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2010
Germine, L., & Hooker, C. I. (2010). Face emotion recognition is related to individual differences in psychosis-proneness. Psychological Medicine , 41, 937-47.Abstract

Background. Deficits in face emotion recognition (FER) in schizophrenia are well documented, and have been proposed as a potential intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia liability. However, research on the relationship between psychosis vulnerability and FER has mixed findings and methodological limitations. Moreover, no study has yet characterized the relationship between FER ability and level of psychosis-proneness. If FER ability varies continuously with psychosis-proneness, this suggests a relationship between FER and polygenic risk factors.

Method. We tested two large internet samples to see whether psychometric psychosis-proneness, as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), is related to differences in face emotion identification and discrimination or other face processing abilities.

Results. Experiment 1 (n=2332) showed that psychosis-proneness predicts face emotion identification ability but not face gender identification ability. Experiment 2 (n=1514) demonstrated that psychosis-proneness also predicts performance on face emotion but not face identity discrimination. The tasks in Experiment 2 used identical stimuli and task parameters, differing only in emotion/identity judgment. Notably, the relationships demonstrated in Experiments 1 and 2 persisted even when individuals with the highest psychosis-proneness levels (the putative highrisk group) were excluded from analysis.

Conclusions. Our data suggest that FER ability is related to individual differences in psychosis-like characteristics in the normal population, and that these differences cannot be accounted for by differences in face processing and/or visual perception. Our results suggest that FER may provide a useful candidate intermediate phenotype.

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Hooker, C. I., Verosky, S., Germine, L., Knight, R. T., & D'Esposito, M. (2010). Neural activity during social signal perception correlates with self-reported empathy. Brain Research , 1308, 100-13.Abstract

Empathy is an important component of human relationships, yet the neural mechanisms that facilitate empathy are unclear. The broad construct of empathy incorporates both cognitive and affective components. Cognitive empathy includes mentalizing skills such as perspective-taking. Affective empathy consists of the affect produced in response to someone else's emotional state, a process which is facilitated by simulation or “mirroring.” Prior evidence shows that mentalizing tasks engage a neural network which includes the temporoparietal junction, superior temporal sulcus, and medial prefrontal cortex. On the other hand, simulation tasks engage the fronto-parietal mirror neuron system (MNS) which includes the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the somotosensory related cortex (SRC). Here, we tested whether neural activity in these two neural networks was related to self-reports of cognitive and affective empathy in daily life. Participants viewed social scenes in which the shift of direction of attention of a character did or did not change the character's mental and emotional state. As expected, the task robustly activated both mentalizing and MNS networks. We found that when detecting the character's change in mental and emotional state, neural activity in both networks is strongly related to cognitive empathy. Specifically, neural activity in the IFG, SRC, and STS were related to cognitive empathy. Activity in the precentral gyrus was related to affective empathy. The findings suggest that both

simulation and mentalizing networks contribute to multiple components of empathy.

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Hooker, C. I., Gyurak, A., Verosky, S. C., & Ayduk, O. (2010). Neural activity to a partner's facial expression predicts self-regulation after conflict. Biological Psychiatry , 67 (5), 406-13.Abstract

Background: Failure to self-regulate after an interpersonal conflict can result in persistent negative mood and maladaptive behaviors. Research indicates that lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activity is related to emotion regulation in response to laboratory-based affective challenges, such as viewing emotional pictures. This suggests that compromised LPFC function may be a risk factor for mood and behavior problems after an interpersonal conflict. However, it remains unclear whether LPFC activity to a laboratory-based affective challenge predicts self-regulation in real life.

Methods: We investigated whether LPFC activity to a laboratory-based affective challenge (negative facial expressions of a partner) predicts self-regulation after a real-life affective challenge (interpersonal conflict). During a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, healthy, adult participants in committed relationships (n=27) viewed positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions of their partners. In a three-week online daily diary, participants reported conflict occurrence, level of negative mood, rumination, and substance use.

Results: LPFC activity in response to the laboratory-based affective challenge predicted self-regulation after an interpersonal conflict in daily life. When there was no interpersonal conflict, LPFC activity was not related to mood or behavior the next day. However, when an interpersonal conflict did occur, ventral LPFC (VLPFC) activity predicted mood and behavior the next day, such that lower VLPFC activity was related to higher levels of negative mood, rumination, and substance use.

Conclusions: Low LPFC function may be a vulnerability and high LPFC function may be a protective factor for the development of mood and behavior problems after an interpersonal stressor.

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2008
Hooker, C. I., Verosky, S. C., Miyakawa, A., Knight, R. T., & D'Esposito, M. (2008). The influence of personality on neural mechanisms of observational fear and reward learning. Neuropsychologia , 46 (11), 2709-24. [pdf]
Hooker, C. I., Verosky, S. C., Germine, L. T., Knight, R. T., & D'Esposito, M. (2008). Mentalizing about emotion and its relationship to empathy. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience , 3 204-17. [pdf]
2006
Hooker, C. I., Knight, R. T., Zald, D. H., & Rauch, S. L. (2006). Role of the orbitofrontal cortex in the inhibition of emotion. In The Orbitofrontal Cortex . New York, Oxford University Press. [pdf]
Hooker, C. I., Germine, L. T., Knight, R. T., & D’Esposito, M. (2006). Amygdala response to facial expressions reflects emotional learning. Journal of Neuroscience , 26 (35), 8915-22. [pdf]
2005
Hooker, C. I., & Park, S. (2005). You must be looking at me: the nature of gaze perception in schizophrenia. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry , 10 (5), 327-45. [pdf]
2003
Hooker, C. I., Paller, K. A., Gitelman, D. R., Parrish, T. B., Mesulam, M. - M., & Reber, P. R. (2003). Brain networks for analyzing eye gaze. Cognitive Brain Research , 17 (2), 406-18. [pdf]
2002
Hooker, C. I., & Park, S. (2002). Emotion processing and its relationship to social functioning in schizophrenia patients. Psychiatry Research , 112, 41-50. [pdf]
2000
Hooker, C. I., & Park, S. (2000). Trajectory estimation in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research , 45, 83-92. [pdf]
Hooker, C. I., Roese, N., & Park, S. (2000). Impoverished counterfactual thinking is associated with schizophrenia. Psychiatry , 63 (4), 326-35. [pdf]
1998
Park, S., & Hooker, C. I. (1998). Increased repetition blindness in schizophrenia patients and first degree relatives of schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia Research , 32, 59-62. [pdf]

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