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Cristiano A, Finisguerra A, Urgesi C, Avenanti A, Tidoni E. Functional role of the theory of mind network in integrating mentalistic prior information with action kinematics during action observation. Cortex 2023; 166:107-120. [PMID: 37354870 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/26/2023]
Abstract
Inferring intentions from verbal and nonverbal human behaviour is critical for everyday social life. Here, we combined Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) with a behavioural priming paradigm to test whether key nodes of the Theory of Mind network (ToMn) contribute to understanding others' intentions by integrating prior knowledge about an agent with the observed action kinematics. We used a modified version of the Faked-Action Discrimination Task (FAD), a forced-choice paradigm in which participants watch videos of actors lifting a cube and judge whether the actors are trying to deceive them concerning the weight of the cube. Videos could be preceded or not by verbal description (prior) about the agent's truthful or deceitful intent. We applied single pulse TMS over three key nodes of the ToMn, namely dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ). Sham-TMS served as a control (baseline) condition. Following sham or rTPJ stimulation, we observed no consistent influence of priors on FAD performance. In contrast, following dmPFC stimulation, and to a lesser extent pSTS stimulation, truthful and deceitful actions were perceived as more deceptive only when the prior suggested a dishonest intention. These findings highlight a functional role of dmPFC and pSTS in coupling prior knowledge about deceptive intents with observed action kinematics in order to judge faked actions. Our study provides causal evidence that fronto-temporal nodes of the ToMn are functionally relevant to mental state inference during action observation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Azzurra Cristiano
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome and CLN(2)S@Sapienza, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
| | | | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Neuropsychiatry and Neurorehabilitation Unit, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, Udine, Italy
| | - Alessio Avenanti
- Department of Psychology, Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy; Centro de Investigación en Neuropsicología y Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad Católica Del Maule, Talca, Chile.
| | - Emmanuele Tidoni
- Human Technology Laboratory, School of Psychology and Social Work, University of Hull, Hull, UK; School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
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The Effect of Javanese Language Videos with a Community Based Interactive Approach Method as an Educational Instrument for Knowledge, Perception, and Adherence amongst Tuberculosis Patients. PHARMACY 2021; 9:pharmacy9020086. [PMID: 33919615 PMCID: PMC8167738 DOI: 10.3390/pharmacy9020086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2021] [Accepted: 04/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The long period of tuberculosis treatment causes patients to have a high risk of forgetting or stopping the medication altogether, which increases the risk of oral anti-tuberculosis drug resistance. The patient’s knowledge and perception of the disease affect the patient’s adherence to treatment. This research objective was to determine the impact of educational videos in the local language on the level of knowledge, perception, and adherence of tuberculosis patients in the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) Bangil. This quasi-experimental study design with a one-month follow-up allocated 62 respondents in the intervention group and 60 in the control group. The pre- and post-experiment levels of knowledge and perception were measured with a validated set of questions. Adherence was measured by pill counts. The results showed that the intervention increases the level of knowledge of the intervention group higher than that of the control group (p-value < 0.05) and remained high after one month of follow-up. The perceptions domains that changed after education using Javanese (Ngoko) language videos with the Community Based Interactive Approach (CBIA) method were the timeline, personal control, illness coherence, and emotional representations (p-value < 0.05). More than 95% of respondents in the intervention group take 95% of their pill compared to 58% of respondents in the control group (p-value < 0.05). Utilization of the local languages for design a community-based interactive approach to educate and communicate is important and effective.
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Movies and narratives as naturalistic stimuli in neuroimaging. Neuroimage 2020; 224:117445. [PMID: 33059053 PMCID: PMC7805386 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2020] [Revised: 10/06/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Using movies and narratives as naturalistic stimuli in human neuroimaging studies has yielded significant advances in understanding of cognitive and emotional functions. The relevant literature was reviewed, with emphasis on how the use of naturalistic stimuli has helped advance scientific understanding of human memory, attention, language, emotions, and social cognition in ways that would have been difficult otherwise. These advances include discovering a cortical hierarchy of temporal receptive windows, which supports processing of dynamic information that accumulates over several time scales, such as immediate reactions vs. slowly emerging patterns in social interactions. Naturalistic stimuli have also helped elucidate how the hippocampus supports segmentation and memorization of events in day-to-day life and have afforded insights into attentional brain mechanisms underlying our ability to adopt specific perspectives during natural viewing. Further, neuroimaging studies with naturalistic stimuli have revealed the role of the default-mode network in narrative-processing and in social cognition. Finally, by robustly eliciting genuine emotions, these stimuli have helped elucidate the brain basis of both basic and social emotions apparently manifested as highly overlapping yet distinguishable patterns of brain activity.
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Egorova N, Shtyrov Y, Pulvermüller F. Brain basis of communicative actions in language. Neuroimage 2015; 125:857-867. [PMID: 26505303 PMCID: PMC4692511 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.10.055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2015] [Revised: 09/17/2015] [Accepted: 10/20/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Although language is a key tool for communication in social interaction, most studies in the neuroscience of language have focused on language structures such as words and sentences. Here, the neural correlates of speech acts, that is, the actions performed by using language, were investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were shown videos, in which the same critical utterances were used in different communicative contexts, to Name objects, or to Request them from communication partners. Understanding of critical utterances as Requests was accompanied by activation in bilateral premotor, left inferior frontal and temporo-parietal cortical areas known to support action-related and social interactive knowledge. Naming, however, activated the left angular gyrus implicated in linking information about word forms and related reference objects mentioned in critical utterances. These findings show that understanding of utterances as different communicative actions is reflected in distinct brain activation patterns, and thus suggest different neural substrates for different speech act types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Egorova
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK; Department of Psychiatric Neuroimaging, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, 02129, Charlestown, MA, USA.
| | - Yury Shtyrov
- Centre of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Aarhus University, Denmark; Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, 109316, Russia
| | - Friedemann Pulvermüller
- Brain Language Laboratory, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany.
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Action observation and imitation in autism spectrum disorders: an ALE meta-analysis of fMRI studies. Brain Imaging Behav 2015; 10:960-969. [DOI: 10.1007/s11682-015-9456-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Kovács ÁM, Kühn S, Gergely G, Csibra G, Brass M. Are all beliefs equal? Implicit belief attributions recruiting core brain regions of theory of mind. PLoS One 2014; 9:e106558. [PMID: 25259625 PMCID: PMC4178016 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2014] [Accepted: 08/01/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans possess efficient mechanisms to behave adaptively in social contexts. They ascribe goals and beliefs to others and use these for behavioural predictions. Researchers argued for two separate mental attribution systems: an implicit and automatic one involved in online interactions, and an explicit one mainly used in offline deliberations. However, the underlying mechanisms of these systems and the types of beliefs represented in the implicit system are still unclear. Using neuroimaging methods, we show that the right temporo-parietal junction and the medial prefrontal cortex, brain regions consistently found to be involved in explicit mental state reasoning, are also recruited by spontaneous belief tracking. While the medial prefrontal cortex was more active when both the participant and another agent believed an object to be at a specific location, the right temporo-parietal junction was selectively activated during tracking the false beliefs of another agent about the presence, but not the absence of objects. While humans can explicitly attribute to a conspecific any possible belief they themselves can entertain, implicit belief tracking seems to be restricted to beliefs with specific contents, a content selectivity that may reflect a crucial functional characteristic and signature property of implicit belief attribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ágnes Melinda Kovács
- Cognitive Development Centre, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
- * E-mail:
| | - Simone Kühn
- Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Berlin, Germany
| | - György Gergely
- Cognitive Development Centre, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gergely Csibra
- Cognitive Development Centre, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Marcel Brass
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Ghent Institute of Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Maguinness C, Setti A, Roudaia E, Kenny RA. Does that look heavy to you? Perceived weight judgment in lifting actions in younger and older adults. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7:795. [PMID: 24324423 PMCID: PMC3839046 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2013] [Accepted: 10/31/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When interpreting other people's movements or actions, observers may not only rely on the visual cues available in the observed movement, but they may also be able to "put themselves in the other person's shoes" by engaging brain systems involved in both "mentalizing" and motor simulation. The ageing process brings changes in both perceptual and motor abilities, yet little is known about how these changes may affect the ability to accurately interpret other people's actions. Here we investigated the effect of ageing on the ability to discriminate the weight of objects based on the movements of actors lifting these objects. Stimuli consisted of videos of an actor lifting a small box weighing 0.05-0.9 kg or a large box weighting 3-18 kg. In a four-alternative forced-choice task, younger and older participants reported the perceived weight of the box in each video. Overall, older participants were less sensitive than younger participants in discriminating the perceived weight of lifted boxes, an effect that was especially pronounced in the small box condition. Weight discrimination performance was better for the large box compared to the small box in both groups, due to greater saliency of the visual cues in this condition. These results suggest that older adults may require more salient visual cues to interpret the actions of others accurately. We discuss the potential contribution of age-related changes in visual and motor function on the observed effects and suggest that older adults' decline in the sensitivity to subtle visual cues may lead to greater reliance on visual analysis of the observed scene and its semantic context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corrina Maguinness
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin Dublin, Ireland ; Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin Dublin, Ireland
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Ramsey R, Cross ES, Hamilton AFDC. Supramodal and modality-sensitive representations of perceived action categories in the human brain. Exp Brain Res 2013; 230:345-57. [PMID: 23963602 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-013-3659-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2013] [Accepted: 07/24/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Seeing Suzie bite an apple or reading the sentence 'Suzie munched the apple' both convey a similar idea. But is there a common neural basis for action comprehension when generated through video or text? The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to address this question. Participants observed videos or read sentences that described two categories of actions: eating and cleaning. A conjunction analysis of video and sentence stimuli revealed that cleaning actions (compared to eating actions) showed a greater response in dorsal frontoparietal regions, as well as within the medial fusiform gyrus. These findings reveal supramodal representations of perceived actions in the human brain, which are specific to action categories and independent of input modality (video or written words). In addition, some brain regions associated with cleaning and eating actions showed an interaction with modality, which was manifested as a greater sensitivity for video compared with sentence stimuli. Together, this pattern of results demonstrates both supramodal and modality-sensitive representations of action categories in the human brain, a finding with implications for how we understand other people's actions from video and written sources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Ramsey
- Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK,
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Grafton ST, Tipper CM. Decoding intention: a neuroergonomic perspective. Neuroimage 2011; 59:14-24. [PMID: 21651985 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.05.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2011] [Revised: 05/20/2011] [Accepted: 05/21/2011] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Decoding the intentions of other people based on non-linguistic cues such as their body movement is a major requirement of many jobs. Whether it is maintaining security at an airport or negotiating with locals in a foreign country, there is a need to maximize the effectiveness of training or real-time performance in this decoding process. This review considers the potential utility of neuroergonomic solutions, and in particular, of electroencephalographic (EEG) methods for augmenting action understanding. Focus is given to body movements and hand-object interactions, where there is a rapid growth in relevant science. The interpretation of EEG-based signals is reinforced by a consideration of functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments demonstrating underlying brain mechanisms that support goal oriented action. While no EEG method is currently implemented as a practical application for enhancing the understanding of unspoken intentions, there are a number of promising approaches that merit further development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott T Grafton
- Department of Psychological and Brain Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660, USA.
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