Abstract
The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) has been implicated in studies of both executive and social functions. Recent meta-analyses suggest that vlPFC plays an important but little understood role in Theory of Mind (ToM). Converging neuropsychological and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) evidence suggests that this may reflect inhibition of self-perspective. The present study adapted an extensively published ToM localizer to evaluate the role of vlPFC in inhibition of self-perspective. The classic false belief, false photograph vignettes that comprise the localizer were modified to generate high and low salience of self-perspective. Using a factorial design, the present study identified a behavioural and neural cost associated with having a highly salient self-perspective that was incongruent with the representational content. Importantly, vlPFC only differentiated between high versus low salience of self-perspective when representing mental state content. No difference was identified for non-mental representation. This result suggests that different control processes are required to represent competing mental and non-mental content.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 183-192 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Neuropsychologia |
| Volume | 67 |
| Early online date | 16 Dec 2014 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2015 |
Fingerprint
Bibliographical note
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Keywords
- inhibition
- brain mapping
- magnetic resonance imaging
- prefrontal cortex
- self concept
- theory of mind
Cite this
}
The special case of self-perspective inhibition in mental, but not non-mental, representation. / Hartwright, Charlotte E.; Apperly, Ian A.; Hansen, Peter C.
In: Neuropsychologia, Vol. 67, 01.2015, p. 183-192.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - The special case of self-perspective inhibition in mental, but not non-mental, representation
AU - Hartwright, Charlotte E.
AU - Apperly, Ian A.
AU - Hansen, Peter C.
N1 - © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
PY - 2015/1
Y1 - 2015/1
N2 - The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) has been implicated in studies of both executive and social functions. Recent meta-analyses suggest that vlPFC plays an important but little understood role in Theory of Mind (ToM). Converging neuropsychological and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) evidence suggests that this may reflect inhibition of self-perspective. The present study adapted an extensively published ToM localizer to evaluate the role of vlPFC in inhibition of self-perspective. The classic false belief, false photograph vignettes that comprise the localizer were modified to generate high and low salience of self-perspective. Using a factorial design, the present study identified a behavioural and neural cost associated with having a highly salient self-perspective that was incongruent with the representational content. Importantly, vlPFC only differentiated between high versus low salience of self-perspective when representing mental state content. No difference was identified for non-mental representation. This result suggests that different control processes are required to represent competing mental and non-mental content.
AB - The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) has been implicated in studies of both executive and social functions. Recent meta-analyses suggest that vlPFC plays an important but little understood role in Theory of Mind (ToM). Converging neuropsychological and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) evidence suggests that this may reflect inhibition of self-perspective. The present study adapted an extensively published ToM localizer to evaluate the role of vlPFC in inhibition of self-perspective. The classic false belief, false photograph vignettes that comprise the localizer were modified to generate high and low salience of self-perspective. Using a factorial design, the present study identified a behavioural and neural cost associated with having a highly salient self-perspective that was incongruent with the representational content. Importantly, vlPFC only differentiated between high versus low salience of self-perspective when representing mental state content. No difference was identified for non-mental representation. This result suggests that different control processes are required to represent competing mental and non-mental content.
KW - inhibition
KW - brain mapping
KW - magnetic resonance imaging
KW - prefrontal cortex
KW - self concept
KW - theory of mind
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.12.015
DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.12.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 25527113
VL - 67
SP - 183
EP - 192
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
SN - 0028-3932
ER -