[Philosophy of Social Cognition] Ninth Meeting

[Martyna Meyer]

Dear all,

I hope you're having a great weekend :)

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That's the text we will discuss during our next session:

Zawidzki, T. W. (2008). *The function of folk psychology: Mind reading 
or mind shaping?* /Philosophical Explorations/, 11(3), 193–210
You can access it here: 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248946337_The_Function_of_Folk_Psychology_Mind_reading_or_mind_shaping

The readings for the next sessions are here 
<https://socialcognition.phl.univie.ac.at/syllabus/>.

You’re welcome to join online (Zoom link 
<https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65514918078?pwd=cVZTd2Ivb09uSUFVNTZORWFIOTA4UT09>) 
or in person, at NIG (room 3B, third floor).
We’re starting at 6:30 CET. The next meeting is on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
<https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65514918078?pwd=cVZTd2Ivb09uSUFVNTZORWFIOTA4UT09>

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As a treat, I am forwarding you this great, information-filled email 
from Jonas (which arrived in my mailbox titled: "studies! stuff! 
randomness!", absolutely making my day).
It refers to our previous session, the one about "Direct Perception in 
the Intersubjective Context" by S. Gallagher. Thank you so much, Jonas :)

/Hi! //
////
//I'm sorry to have forgotten sending study links to last week's 
discussion references. //
//Now almost a week later I also don't remember as much as would have 
been nice (thanks brain). //
////
//The one thing I do definitely remember though was the thing with the 
car "personalities" for which here is an article: //
//https://news.fsu.edu/news/education-society/2009/07/06/life-is-a-highway-study-confirms-cars-have-personality/////
////
//or the study itself here: //
//https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236002770_Face_to_Face////
////
//And in addition since it seemed applicable in multiple sessions 
already here are some of the papers on the link between own perception 
of pain and its potential link to that of others in neuroscience: //
////
//Rütgen, M., Seidel, E.-M., Pletti, C., Riečanský, I., Gartus, A., 
Eisenegger, C., & Lamm, C. (2018). Psychopharmacological modulation of 
event-related potentials suggests that first-hand pain and empathy for 
pain rely on similar opioidergic processes. Neuropsychologia, 116(Pt A), 
5–14. //https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.04.023////
//Rütgen, M., Seidel, E.-M., Riečanský, I., & Lamm, C. (2015). Reduction 
of empathy for pain by placebo analgesia suggests functional equivalence 
of empathy and first-hand emotion experience. Journal of Neuroscience, 
35(23), 8938–8947. //https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3936-14.2015////
//Rütgen, M., Seidel, E.-M., Silani, G., Riečanský, I., Hummer, A., 
Windischberger, C., Petrovic, P., & Lamm, C. (2015). Placebo analgesia 
and its opioidergic regulation suggest that empathy for pain is grounded 
in self pain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(41), 
5638–5646. //https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1511269112////
//Rütgen, M., Wirth, E.-M., Riečanský, I., Hummer, A., Windischberger, 
C., Petrovic, P., Silani, G., & Lamm, C. (2021). Beyond sharing 
unpleasant affect—evidence for pain-specific opioidergic modulation of 
empathy for pain. Cerebral Cortex, 31(6), 2773–2786. 
//https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa385////
////
//They are all from Vienna; Markus Rütgen is a postdoc with Claus Lamm 
who was also mentioned already in the meetings. The first three explore 
the same phenomenon: induce placebo analgesia - this is connected to 
both lower ratings for own pain perception as well as perceived pain and 
affective sharing of pain in others - effects for both oneself and for 
the other conditions can be reverted via administering an opioid 
antagonist. The fourth one distinguishes between pain and unpleasant 
touch, finding that this reversion only happens for pain, but not 
unpleasant touch, although placebo analgesia lowered both the perception 
of own-unpleasant touch as well as its perception in others as well! 
Quick note here though that the same phenomenon has been found for 
Acetaminophen (=Paracetamol), a non-opioidergic painkiller: //
////
//Mischkowski, D., Crocker, J., & Way, B. M. (2016). From painkiller to 
empathy killer: Acetaminophen (paracetamol) reduces empathy for pain. 
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(9), 1345–1353. 
//https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw057////
////
//Additionally there's papers who correlate more fine-grained brain 
activation patterns, mostly also finding that they correspond for own 
painful experience vs perception of similar experience in others; but 
not entirely unequivocally, and I think this mail is long enough already 
(and I still need some ammunition for further discussions :P) //
////
//So in sum there's still much to be discovered, I guess, and discussed 
in regard to what this actually means in correspondence to simulation 
accounts or its counterarguments 😄 //
////
//Maybe those links are of interest to someone who wants to go down the 
rabbit hole of neuroscientific attempts to uncover the brain mechanisms 
behind social cognition; and to what degree this actually can inform 
theories of cognition (eg those discussed in the sessions) remains to be 
seen I'd say. //
////
//Have a great rest of the day! //
//Best, //
//Jonas /

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All the best and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon,
Martyna
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