1
|
Padrón I, García-Marco E, Moreno I, Birba A, Silvestri V, León I, Álvarez C, López J, de Vega M. Multisession Anodal tDCS on the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction Improves Mentalizing Processes in Adults with Autistic Traits. Brain Sci 2021; 12:brainsci12010030. [PMID: 35053774 PMCID: PMC8773564 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12010030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2021] [Revised: 12/21/2021] [Accepted: 12/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired mentalizing skills. In this study, a group of persons with ASD traits (high-AQ scores) initially received sham tDCS before completing a pre-test in two mentalizing tasks: false belief and self-other judgments. Over the next week, on four consecutive days, they received sessions of anodal electrical stimulation (a-tDCS) over the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ), a region frequently associated with the theory of mind. On the last day, after the stimulation session, they completed a new set of mentalizing tasks. A control group (with low-AQ scores) matched in age, education and intelligence received just sham stimulation and completed the same pre-test and post-test. The results showed that the high-AQ group improved their performance (faster responses), after a-tDCS, in the false belief and in the self-other judgments of mental features, whereas they did not change performance in the false photographs or the self-other judgments of physical features. These selective improvements cannot be attributed to increased familiarity with the tasks, because the performance of the low-AQ control group remained stable about one week later. Therefore, our study provides initial proof that tDCS could be used to improve mentalizing skills in persons with ASD traits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Iván Padrón
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
| | - Enrique García-Marco
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Europea de Canarias, 38300 La Orotava, Spain
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), 28040 Madrid, Spain
| | - Iván Moreno
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
| | - Agustina Birba
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina;
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
| | - Valentina Silvestri
- Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy;
| | - Inmaculada León
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
| | - Carlos Álvarez
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
| | - Joana López
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
| | - Manuel de Vega
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 La Laguna, Spain; (I.P.); (E.G.-M.); (I.M.); (I.L.); (C.Á.); (J.L.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +34-630027293
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Behavioural science is unlikely to change the world without a heterogeneity revolution. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:980-989. [PMID: 34294901 PMCID: PMC8928154 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01143-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 101] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
In the past decade, behavioural science has gained influence in policymaking but suffered a crisis of confidence in the replicability of its findings. Here, we describe a nascent heterogeneity revolution that we believe these twin historical trends have triggered. This revolution will be defined by the recognition that most treatment effects are heterogeneous, so the variation in effect estimates across studies that defines the replication crisis is to be expected as long as heterogeneous effects are studied without a systematic approach to sampling and moderation. When studied systematically, heterogeneity can be leveraged to build more complete theories of causal mechanism that could inform nuanced and dependable guidance to policymakers. We recommend investment in shared research infrastructure to make it feasible to study behavioural interventions in heterogeneous and generalizable samples, and suggest low-cost steps researchers can take immediately to avoid being misled by heterogeneity and begin to learn from it instead.
Collapse
|
3
|
Era V, Aglioti SM, Candidi M. Inhibitory Theta Burst Stimulation Highlights the Role of Left aIPS and Right TPJ during Complementary and Imitative Human-Avatar Interactions in Cooperative and Competitive Scenarios. Cereb Cortex 2021; 30:1677-1687. [PMID: 31667496 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2018] [Revised: 07/31/2019] [Accepted: 08/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Competitive and cooperative interactions are based on anticipation or synchronization with the partner's actions. Both forms of interaction may either require performing imitative or complementary movements with respect to those performed by our partner. We explored how parietal regions involved in the control of imitative behavior (temporo-parietal junction, TPJ), goal coding and visuo-motor integration (anterior intraparietal sulcus, aIPS) contribute to the execution of imitative and complementary movements during cooperative and competitive interactions. To this aim, we delivered off-line non-invasive inhibitory brain stimulation to healthy individuals' left aIPS and right TPJ before they were asked to reach and grasp an object together with a virtual partner by either performing imitative or complementary interactions. In different blocks, participants were asked to compete or cooperate with the virtual partner that varied its behavior according to cooperative or competitive contexts. Left aIPS and right TPJ inhibition impaired individuals' performance (i.e., synchrony in cooperative task and anticipation in competition) during complementary and imitative interactions, respectively, in both cooperative and competitive contexts, indicating that aIPS and TPJ inhibition affects own-other action integration and action imitation (that are different in complementary vs imitative interactions) more than action synchronization or anticipation (that are different in cooperative vs competitive contexts).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa Era
- SCNLab Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS, Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Salvatore Maria Aglioti
- SCNLab Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS, Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Matteo Candidi
- SCNLab Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS, Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00185, Rome, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Grennan G, Balasubramani PP, Alim F, Zafar-Khan M, Lee EE, Jeste DV, Mishra J. Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Loneliness and Wisdom during Emotional Bias. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:3311-3322. [PMID: 33687437 PMCID: PMC8196261 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Loneliness and wisdom have opposing impacts on health and well-being, yet their neuro-cognitive bases have never been simultaneously investigated. In this study of 147 healthy human subjects sampled across the adult lifespan, we simultaneously studied the cognitive and neural correlates of loneliness and wisdom in the context of an emotion bias task. Aligned with the social threat framework of loneliness, we found that loneliness was associated with reduced speed of processing when angry emotional stimuli were presented to bias cognition. In contrast, we found that wisdom was associated with greater speed of processing when happy emotions biased cognition. Source models of electroencephalographic data showed that loneliness was specifically associated with enhanced angry stimulus-driven theta activity in the left transverse temporal region of interest, which is located in the area of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), while wisdom was specifically related to increased TPJ theta activity during happy stimulus processing. Additionally, enhanced attentiveness to threatening stimuli for lonelier individuals was observed as greater beta activity in left superior parietal cortex, while wisdom significantly related to enhanced happy stimulus-evoked alpha activity in the left insula. Our results demonstrate emotion-context driven modulations in cognitive neural circuits by loneliness versus wisdom.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gillian Grennan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Fahad Alim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Mariam Zafar-Khan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Ellen E Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, 92161 CA, USA
| | - Dilip V Jeste
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| | - Jyoti Mishra
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
- Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037 CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Bahji A, Forth E, Yang CC, Khalifa N. Transcranial direct current stimulation for empathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Soc Neurosci 2021; 16:232-255. [PMID: 33567964 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1889657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has been used to modulate empathy, but no studies have meta-analyzed the evidence base for its efficacy. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of tDCS at modulating empathy. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials involving anodal or cathodal versus sham tDCS to modulate empathy in healthy adults and clinical populations. Random-effects modelling was applied to pooling overall efficacy estimates using standardized mean differences (Hedge's g) and 95% confidence intervals. Outcome measures for tasks designed to measure empathy were reaction time and accuracy. Anodal tDCS appears to improve lab-based computerized measures of cognitive empathy in healthy adult volunteers. While the evidence provided by this review may be of relevance to individuals with impaired empathic capabilities, the generalizability of our findings is geared towards nonclinical populations given the preponderance of healthy volunteers in our review. Hence, it is not clear if moderate improvements in speed and accuracy on lab-based computerized empathy measures would lead to meaningful clinical improvements. Future studies should consider the use of tDCS to modulate empathy in clinical populations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anees Bahji
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Evan Forth
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| | - Cheng-Chang Yang
- Department of Neurology, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Najat Khalifa
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Peng S, Kuang B, Zhang L, Hu P. Right Temporoparietal Junction Plays a Role in the Modulation of Emotional Mimicry by Group Membership. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:606292. [PMID: 33643012 PMCID: PMC7902487 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.606292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Our prior research demonstrated that the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) exerted a modulatory role in ingroup bias in emotional mimicry. In this study, two experiments were conducted to further explore whether the rTPJ is a neural region for emotional mimicry or for the modulation of emotional mimicry by group membership in a sham-controlled, double-blinded, between-subject design. Both experiments employed non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to temporarily change the cortical excitability over the rTPJ and facial electromyography (fEMG) to measure facial muscle activations as an index of emotional mimicry. After the anodal or sham stimulation, participants in Experiment 1 passively viewed a series of happy clips, while participants in Experiment 2 viewed happy clips performed by ethnic ingroup and outgroup models. fEMG analyses revealed that participants in Experiment 1 showed the same degree of happy mimicry for both tDCS conditions (anodal vs. sham) and participants in Experiment 2 showed an ingroup bias in happy mimicry in the sham condition, which disappeared in the anodal condition. Taken together, the present study demonstrated that rTPJ plays a role in the modulation of emotional mimicry by group membership.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shenli Peng
- College of Education, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
| | - Beibei Kuang
- School of International Relations, National University of Defense Technology, Nanjing, China
| | - Ling Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
| | - Ping Hu
- Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Wolgast A, Tandler N, Harrison L, Umlauft S. Adults’ Dispositional and Situational Perspective-Taking: a Systematic Review. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10648-019-09507-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
|
8
|
The Role of the Temporoparietal Junction in Self-Other Distinction. Brain Topogr 2019; 32:943-955. [DOI: 10.1007/s10548-019-00737-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Accepted: 10/18/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
|
9
|
Darda KM, Ramsey R. The inhibition of automatic imitation: A meta-analysis and synthesis of fMRI studies. Neuroimage 2019; 197:320-329. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Revised: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
|
10
|
Abstract
While the contribution of social processes to pain perception is well documented, surprisingly little is known about the influence of pain on social perception. In particular, an important question is how pain modulates the processing of other people's actions. To address this question, the current study tests, using automatic imitation, the hypothesis that pain interferes with motor simulation-that is, the processing of observed actions in the motor system. Participants in both experiments performed an automatic imitation task requiring them to abduct their index or little finger while they saw someone else performing either a congruent or incongruent action. Automatic imitation was measured in a pain-free context, a context where pain was coupled to the execution of a movement (experiment 1), and a context where pain occurred randomly (experiment 2). The results revealed that automatic imitation, indexed by slower responses on incongruent compared with congruent trials, was reduced when experiencing pain, both when pain was linked to movement execution and when it was not. Thus, the current study shows that pain leads to reduced motor processing of others' behavior and, as such, has important implications for understanding the social difficulties associated with pain.
Collapse
|
11
|
Reaction time indices of automatic imitation measure imitative response tendencies. Conscious Cogn 2019; 68:115-118. [DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2018] [Revised: 12/21/2018] [Accepted: 01/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
|
12
|
Visual attention and action: How cueing, direct mapping, and social interactions drive orienting. Psychon Bull Rev 2018; 25:1585-1605. [PMID: 28808932 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-017-1354-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Despite considerable interest in both action perception and social attention over the last 2 decades, there has been surprisingly little investigation concerning how the manual actions of other humans orient visual attention. The present review draws together studies that have measured the orienting of attention, following observation of another's goal-directed action. Our review proposes that, in line with the literature on eye gaze, action is a particularly strong orienting cue for the visual system. However, we additionally suggest that action may orient visual attention using mechanisms, which gaze direction does not (i.e., neural direct mapping and corepresentation). Finally, we review the implications of these gaze-independent mechanisms for the study of attention to action. We suggest that our understanding of attention to action may benefit from being studied in the context of joint action paradigms, where the role of higher level action goals and social factors can be investigated.
Collapse
|
13
|
Hayek D, Flöel A, Antonenko D. Role of Sensorimotor Cortex in Gestural-Verbal Integration. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:482. [PMID: 30574078 PMCID: PMC6291781 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2018] [Accepted: 11/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Action comprehension that is related to language or gestural integration has been shown to engage the motor system in the brain, thus providing preliminary evidence for the gestural-verbal embodiment concept. Based on the involvement of the sensorimotor cortex (M1) in language processing, we aimed to further explore its role in the cognitive embodiment necessary for gestural-verbal integration. As such, we applied anodal (excitatory) and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left M1 (with reference electrode over the contralateral supraorbital region) during a gestural-verbal integration task where subjects had to make a decision about the semantic congruency of the gesture (prime) and the word (target). We used a cross-over within-subject design in young subjects. Attentional load and simple reaction time (RT) tasks served as control conditions, applied during stimulation (order of three tasks was counterbalanced). Our results showed that anodal (atDCS) compared to sham tDCS (stDCS) reduced RTs in the gestural-verbal integration task, specifically for incongruent pairs of gestures and verbal expressions, with no effect on control task performance. Our findings provide evidence for the involvement of the sensorimotor system in gestural-verbal integration performance. Further, our results suggest that functional modulation induced by sensorimotor tDCS may be specific to gestural-verbal integration. Future studies should now evaluate the modulatory effect of tDCS on semantic congruency by using tDCS over additional brain regions and include assessments of neural connectivity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dayana Hayek
- Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Department of Neurology, NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Agnes Flöel
- Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Department of Neurology, NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Daria Antonenko
- Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Department of Neurology, NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Ticini LF, Dolk T, Waszak F, Schütz-Bosbach S. IPL-M1 interaction shapes pre-reflective social differentiation in the human action system: new insights from TBS and TMS combined. Sci Rep 2018; 8:12001. [PMID: 30097641 PMCID: PMC6086836 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30480-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2018] [Accepted: 08/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The conscious experience of being the author of our own actions is thought to be grounded in pre-reflective and low-level sensorimotor representations of the self as different from the other. It has been suggested that the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) is generally involved in self-other differentiation processes and in providing an explicit sense of action authorship. However, direct evidence for its causal and functional role in distinguishing self-related and other-related sensorimotor representations is lacking. The current study employed theta-burst stimulation (TBS) to condition left IPL's activity before a social version of the rubber hand illusion led participants to illusorily attribute observed finger movements to their own body. We recorded motor evoked potentials to single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over the primary motor cortex (M1) as proxies of action authorship during action observation. The results showed that in a control condition (intermediate TBS over the left IPL) others' actions facilitated whereas self-attributed movements inhibited the motor system. Critically, continuous TBS disrupted this mismatch between self and other representations. This outcome provides direct evidence for the IPL's role in providing fundamental authorship signals for social differentiation in the human action system.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luca F Ticini
- Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
| | - Thomas Dolk
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
15
|
Bardi L, Six P, Brass M. Repetitive TMS of the temporo-parietal junction disrupts participant's expectations in a spontaneous Theory of Mind task. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 12:1775-1782. [PMID: 28981914 PMCID: PMC5691804 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2017] [Accepted: 09/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
A recent debate about Theory of Mind (ToM) concerns whether spontaneous and explicit mentalizing are based on the same mechanisms. However, only a few neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural bases of spontaneous ToM, with inconsistent results. The present study had two goals: first, to investigate whether the right Temporo-Parietal Junction (rTPJ) is crucially involved in spontaneous ToM and second, to gain insight into the role of the rTPJ in ToM. For the first time, we applied rTMS to the rTPJ while participants were engaged in a spontaneous false belief task. Participants watched videos of a scene including an agent who acquires a true or false belief about the location of an object. At the end of the movie, participants reacted to the presence of the object. Results show that, during stimulation of the control site, RTs were affected by both the participant's expectations and the belief of the agent. Stimulation of the rTPJ significantly modulated task performance, supporting the idea that spontaneous ToM, as well as explicit ToM, relies on TPJ activity. However, we did not observe a disruption of the representation of the agent's belief. Rather, the stimulation interfered with participant's predictions, supporting the idea that rTPJ is crucially involved in self-other distinction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lara Bardi
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Ghent, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Pieter Six
- Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, Australia
| | - Marcel Brass
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Ghent, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Darda KM, Butler EE, Ramsey R. Functional Specificity and Sex Differences in the Neural Circuits Supporting the Inhibition of Automatic Imitation. J Cogn Neurosci 2018; 30:914-933. [PMID: 29561236 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Humans show an involuntary tendency to copy other people's actions. Although automatic imitation builds rapport and affiliation between individuals, we do not copy actions indiscriminately. Instead, copying behaviors are guided by a selection mechanism, which inhibits some actions and prioritizes others. To date, the neural underpinnings of the inhibition of automatic imitation and differences between the sexes in imitation control are not well understood. Previous studies involved small sample sizes and low statistical power, which produced mixed findings regarding the involvement of domain-general and domain-specific neural architectures. Here, we used data from Experiment 1 ( N = 28) to perform a power analysis to determine the sample size required for Experiment 2 ( N = 50; 80% power). Using independent functional localizers and an analysis pipeline that bolsters sensitivity, during imitation control we show clear engagement of the multiple-demand network (domain-general), but no sensitivity in the theory-of-mind network (domain-specific). Weaker effects were observed with regard to sex differences, suggesting that there are more similarities than differences between the sexes in terms of the neural systems engaged during imitation control. In summary, neurocognitive models of imitation require revision to reflect that the inhibition of imitation relies to a greater extent on a domain-general selection system rather than a domain-specific system that supports social cognition.
Collapse
|
17
|
The effect of tDCS over the right temporo-parietal junction on pain empathy. Neuropsychologia 2017; 100:110-119. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.04.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2016] [Revised: 03/12/2017] [Accepted: 04/13/2017] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
|