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Jobson KR, Hoffman LJ, Metoki A, Popal H, Dick AS, Reilly J, Olson IR. Language and the Cerebellum: Structural Connectivity to the Eloquent Brain. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2024; 5:652-675. [PMID: 39175788 PMCID: PMC11338303 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 08/24/2024]
Abstract
Neurobiological models of receptive language have focused on the left-hemisphere perisylvian cortex with the assumption that the cerebellum supports peri-linguistic cognitive processes such as verbal working memory. The goal of this study was to identify language-sensitive regions of the cerebellum then map the structural connectivity profile of these regions. Functional imaging data and diffusion-weighted imaging data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) were analyzed. We found that (a) working memory, motor activity, and language comprehension activated partially overlapping but mostly unique subregions of the cerebellum; (b) the linguistic portion of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit was more extensive than the linguistic portion of the cortico-ponto-cerebellar tract; (c) there was a frontal-lobe bias in the connectivity from the cerebellum to the cerebrum; (d) there was some degree of specificity; and (e) for some cerebellar tracts, individual differences in picture identification ability covaried with fractional anisotropy metrics. These findings yield insights into the structural connectivity of the cerebellum as relates to the uniquely human process of language comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie R. Jobson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Linda J. Hoffman
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Athanasia Metoki
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
| | - Haroon Popal
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Anthony S. Dick
- Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA
| | - Jamie Reilly
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Department of Speech and Language Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Ingrid R. Olson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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Haihambo N, Li M, Ma Q, Baeken C, Deroost N, Baetens K, Van Overwalle F. Exciting the social butterfly: Anodal cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation modulates neural activation during predictive social mentalizing. Int J Clin Health Psychol 2024; 24:100480. [PMID: 39055855 PMCID: PMC11269293 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2024.100480] [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: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has emerged as a promising tool for enhancing social cognition. The posterior cerebellum, which is part of the mentalizing network, has been implicated in social processes. In our combined tDCS-fMRI study, we investigated the effects of offline anodal cerebellar tDCS on activation in the cerebellum during social action prediction. Forty-one participants were randomly assigned to receive either anodal (2 mA) or sham (0 mA) stimulation over the midline of the posterior cerebellum for 20 min. Twenty minutes post stimulation, participants underwent a functional MRI scan to complete a social action prediction task, during which they had to correctly order randomly presented sentences that described either actions of social agents (based on their personality traits) or events of objects (based on their characteristics). As hypothesized, our results revealed that participants who received anodal cerebellar tDCS exhibited increased activation in the posterior cerebellar Crus 2 and lobule IX, and in key cerebral mentalizing areas, including the medial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal junction, and precuneus. Contrary to our hypotheses, participants who received anodal stimulation demonstrated faster responses to non-social objects compared to social agents, while sham participants showed no significant differences. We did not find a significant relationship between electric field magnitude, neural activation and behavioral outcomes. These findings suggest that tDCS targeting the posterior cerebellum selectively enhances activation in social mentalizing areas, while only facilitating behavioral performance of non-social material, perhaps because of a ceiling effect due to familiarity with social processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naem Haihambo
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
- Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Bochum, Germany
- Social Neuroscience, Research Center One Health Ruhr of the University Alliance Ruhr, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
| | - Meijia Li
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
- Language Pathology and Brain Science MEG Lab, School of Communication Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
| | - Qianying Ma
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent Experimental, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1090, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5600, The Netherlands
| | - Chris Baeken
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
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Li M, Pu M, Ma Q, Heleven E, Baeken C, Baetens K, Deroost N, Van Overwalle F. One step too far: social cerebellum in norm-violating navigation. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae027. [PMID: 38536051 PMCID: PMC11037276 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2023] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Social norms are pivotal in guiding social interactions. The current study investigated the potential contribution of the posterior cerebellum, a critical region involved in perceiving and comprehending the sequential dynamics of social actions, in detecting actions that either conform to or deviate from social norms. Participants engaged in a goal-directed task in which they observed others navigating towards a goal. The trajectories demonstrated either norm-violating (trespassing forbidden zones) or norm-following behaviors (avoiding forbidden zones). Results revealed that observing social norm-violating behaviors engaged the bilateral posterior cerebellar Crus 2 and the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) from the mentalizing network, and the parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) to a greater extent than observing norm-following behaviors. These mentalizing regions were also activated when comparing social sequences against non-social and non-sequential control conditions. Reproducing norm-violating social trajectories observed earlier, activated the left cerebellar Crus 2 and the right PHG compared to reproducing norm-following trajectories. These findings illuminate the neural mechanisms in the cerebellum associated with detecting norm transgressions during social navigation, emphasizing the role of the posterior cerebellum in detecting and signaling deviations from anticipated sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meijia Li
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Min Pu
- Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal 14558, Germany
| | - Qianying Ma
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Language Pathology and Brain Science MEG Lab, School of Communication Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) lab, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZBrussel), Brussels 1090, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5600, Netherlands
| | - Kris Baetens
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
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Cortese A, Kawato M. The cognitive reality monitoring network and theories of consciousness. Neurosci Res 2024; 201:31-38. [PMID: 38316366 DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2024.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024]
Abstract
Theories of consciousness abound. However, it is difficult to arbitrate reliably among competing theories because they target different levels of neural and cognitive processing or anatomical loci, and only some were developed with computational models in mind. In particular, theories of consciousness need to fully address the three levels of understanding of the brain proposed by David Marr: computational theory, algorithms and hardware. Most major theories refer to only one or two levels, often indirectly. The cognitive reality monitoring network (CRMN) model is derived from computational theories of mixture-of-experts architecture, hierarchical reinforcement learning and generative/inference computing modules, addressing all three levels of understanding. A central feature of the CRMN is the mapping of a gating network onto the prefrontal cortex, making it a prime coding circuit involved in monitoring the accuracy of one's mental states and distinguishing them from external reality. Because the CRMN builds on the hierarchical and layer structure of the cerebral cortex, it may connect research and findings across species, further enabling concrete computational models of consciousness with new, explicitly testable hypotheses. In sum, we discuss how the CRMN model can help further our understanding of the nature and function of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurelio Cortese
- Computational Neuroscience Labs, ATR Institute International, Kyoto 619-0228, Japan.
| | - Mitsuo Kawato
- Computational Neuroscience Labs, ATR Institute International, Kyoto 619-0228, Japan; XNef, Kyoto 619-0288, Japan.
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Li M, Haihambo N, Bylemans T, Ma Q, Heleven E, Baeken C, Baetens K, Deroost N, Van Overwalle F. Create your own path: social cerebellum in sequence-based self-guided navigation. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae015. [PMID: 38554289 PMCID: PMC10981473 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Spatial trajectory planning and execution in a social context play a vital role in our daily lives. To study this process, participants completed a goal-directed task involving either observing a sequence of preferred goals and self-planning a trajectory (Self Sequencing) or observing and reproducing the entire trajectory taken by others (Other Sequencing). The results indicated that in the observation phase, witnessing entire trajectories created by others (Other Sequencing) recruited cerebellar mentalizing areas (Crus 2 and 1) and cortical mentalizing areas in the precuneus, ventral and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction more than merely observing several goals (Self Sequencing). In the production phase, generating a trajectory by oneself (Self Sequencing) activated Crus 1 more than merely reproducing the observed trajectories from others (Other Sequencing). Additionally, self-guided observation and planning (Self Sequencing) activated the cerebellar lobules IV and VIII more than Other Sequencing. Control conditions involving non-social objects and non-sequential conditions where the trajectory did not have to be (re)produced revealed no differences with the main Self and Other Sequencing conditions, suggesting limited social and sequential specificity. These findings provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying trajectory observation and production by the self or others during social navigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meijia Li
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Naem Haihambo
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Tom Bylemans
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Language Pathology and Brain Science MEG Lab, School of Communication Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZBrussel), Brussels 1090, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5600, the Netherlands
| | - Kris Baetens
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
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Haihambo N, Ma Q, Baetens K, Bylemans T, Heleven E, Baeken C, Deroost N, Van Overwalle F. Two is company: The posterior cerebellum and sequencing for pairs versus individuals during social preference prediction. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2023; 23:1482-1499. [PMID: 37821755 PMCID: PMC10684703 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-023-01127-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have identified that the posterior cerebellum, which plays a role in processing temporal sequences in social events, is consistently and robustly activated when we predict future action sequences based on personality traits (Haihambo Haihambo et al. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 17(2), 241-251, 2022) and intentions (Haihambo et al. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience 23(2), 323-339, 2023). In the current study, we investigated whether these cerebellar areas are selectively activated when we predict the sequences of (inter)actions based on protagonists' preferences. For the first time, we also compared predictions based on person-to-person interactions or single person activities. Participants were instructed to predict actions of one single or two interactive protagonists by selecting them and putting them in the correct chronological order after being informed about one of the protagonists' preferences. These conditions were contrasted against nonsocial (involving objects) and nonsequencing (prediction without generating a sequence) control conditions. Results showed that the posterior cerebellar Crus 1, Crus 2, and lobule IX, alongside the temporoparietal junction and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex were more robustly activated when predicting sequences of behavior of two interactive protagonists, compared to one single protagonist and nonsocial objects. Sequence predictions based on one single protagonist recruited lobule IX activation in the cerebellum and more ventral areas of the medial prefrontal cortex compared to a nonsocial object. These cerebellar activations were not found when making predictions without sequences. Together, these findings suggest that cerebellar mentalizing areas are involved in social mentalizing processes which require temporal sequencing, especially when they involve social interactions, rather than behaviors of single persons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naem Haihambo
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Tom Bylemans
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital UZBrussel, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
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Sader M, Waiter GD, Williams JHG. The cerebellum plays more than one role in the dysregulation of appetite: Review of structural evidence from typical and eating disorder populations. Brain Behav 2023; 13:e3286. [PMID: 37830247 PMCID: PMC10726807 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.3286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Revised: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Dysregulated appetite control is characteristic of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and obesity (OB). Studies using a broad range of methods suggest the cerebellum plays an important role in aspects of weight and appetite control, and is implicated in both AN and OB by reports of aberrant gray matter volume (GMV) compared to nonclinical populations. As functions of the cerebellum are anatomically segregated, specific localization of aberrant anatomy may indicate the mechanisms of its relationship with weight and appetite in different states. We sought to determine if there were consistencies in regions of cerebellar GMV changes in AN/BN and OB, as well as across normative (NOR) variation. METHOD Systematic review and meta-analysis using GingerALE. RESULTS Twenty-six publications were identified as either case-control studies (nOB = 277; nAN/BN = 510) or regressed weight from NOR data against brain volume (total n = 3830). AN/BN and OB analyses both showed consistently decreased GMV within Crus I and Lobule VI, but volume reduction was bilateral for AN/BN and unilateral for OB. Analysis of the NOR data set identified a cluster in right posterior lobe that overlapped with AN/BN cerebellar reduction. Sensitivity analyses indicated robust repeatability for NOR and AN/BN cohorts, but found OB-specific heterogeneity. DISCUSSION Findings suggest that more than one area of the cerebellum is involved in control of eating behavior and may be differentially affected in normal variation and pathological conditions. Specifically, we hypothesize an association with sensorimotor and emotional learning via Lobule VI in AN/BN, and executive function via Crus I in OB.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle Sader
- Biomedical Imaging CentreUniversity of AberdeenAberdeenUK
| | | | - Justin H. G. Williams
- Biomedical Imaging CentreUniversity of AberdeenAberdeenUK
- School of MedicineGriffith UniversityGold CoastQueenslandAustralia
- Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist ServicesGold CoastQueenslandAustralia
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Yang CJ, Yu HY, Hong TY, Shih CH, Yeh TC, Chen LF, Hsieh JC. Trait representation of embodied cognition in dancers pivoting on the extended mirror neuron system: a resting-state fMRI study. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1173993. [PMID: 37492559 PMCID: PMC10364845 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1173993] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 06/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Dance is an art form that integrates the body and mind through movement. Dancers develop exceptional physical and mental abilities that involve various neurocognitive processes linked to embodied cognition. We propose that dancers' primary trait representation is movement-actuated and relies on the extended mirror neuron system (eMNS). Methods A total of 29 dancers and 28 non-dancer controls were recruited. A hierarchical approach of intra-regional and inter-regional functional connectivity (FC) analysis was adopted to probe trait-like neurodynamics within and between regions in the eMNS during rest. Correlation analyses were employed to examine the associations between dance training, creativity, and the FC within and between different brain regions. Results Within the eMNS, dancers exhibited increased intra-regional FC in various brain regions compared to non-dancers. These regions include the left inferior frontal gyrus, left ventral premotor cortex, left anterior insula, left posterior cerebellum (crus II), and bilateral basal ganglia (putamen and globus pallidus). Dancers also exhibited greater intrinsic inter-regional FC between the cerebellum and the core/limbic mirror areas within the eMNS. In dancers, there was a negative correlation observed between practice intensity and the intrinsic FC within the eMNS involving the cerebellum and basal ganglia. Additionally, FCs from the basal ganglia to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were found to be negatively correlated with originality in dancers. Discussion Our results highlight the proficient communication within the cortical-subcortical hierarchy of the eMNS in dancers, linked to the automaticity and cognitive-motor interactions acquired through training. Altered functional couplings in the eMNS can be regarded as a unique neural signature specific to virtuoso dancers, which might predispose them for skilled dancing performance, perception, and creation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ching-Ju Yang
- Institute of Brain Science, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Integrated Brain Research Unit, Division of Clinical Research, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Hsin-Yen Yu
- Graduate Institute of Arts and Humanities Education, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Yi Hong
- Institute of Brain Science, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Integrated Brain Research Unit, Division of Clinical Research, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Chung-Heng Shih
- Institute of Brain Science, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Chen Yeh
- Institute of Brain Science, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Li-Fen Chen
- Institute of Brain Science, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Integrated Brain Research Unit, Division of Clinical Research, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Institute of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Brain Research Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Jen-Chuen Hsieh
- Integrated Brain Research Unit, Division of Clinical Research, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Brain Research Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei City, Taiwan
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Center for Intelligent Drug Systems and Smart Bio-devices (IDSB), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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Bylemans T, Heleven E, Asselman E, Baetens K, Deroost N, Baeken C, Van Overwalle F. Sex differences in autistic adults: A preliminary study showing differences in mentalizing, but not in narrative coherence. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2023; 236:103918. [PMID: 37071947 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Studying autism might be a complex endeavor due to its clinical heterogeneity. Little is currently known about potential sex differences in autistic adults, especially regarding mentalizing and narrative coherence. In this study, male and female participants told a personal story about one of their most positive and most negative life events and performed two mentalizing tasks. One of these mentalizing tasks was a recently developed Picture and Verbal Sequencing task that has shown cerebellar recruitment, and which requires mentalizing in a sequential context (i.e., participants chronologically ordered scenarios that required true and false belief mentalizing). Our preliminary comparison shows that males were faster and more accurate on the Picture Sequencing task compared to female participants when ordering sequences involving false beliefs, but not true beliefs. No sex differences were found for the other mentalizing and narrative tasks. These results highlight the importance of looking at sex differences in autistic adults and provide a possible explanation for sex-related differences in daily life mentalizing functions, which suggest a need for more sensitive diagnosis and tailored support.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Bylemans
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Elien Heleven
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Emma Asselman
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Kris Baetens
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Chris Baeken
- Ghent University: Department of Head and Skin (UZGent), Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Belgium; Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZ Brussel), Brussels, Belgium; Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
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Bylemans T, Heleven E, Baetens K, Deroost N, Baeken C, Van Overwalle F. Mentalizing and narrative coherence in autistic adults: Cerebellar sequencing and prediction. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 146:105045. [PMID: 36646260 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2022] [Revised: 01/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
BYLEMANS, T., et al. Mentalizing and narrative coherence in autistic adults: Cerebellar sequencing and prediction. NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV REV, 2022. - This review focuses on autistic adults and serves 4 purposes: (1) providing an overview of their difficulties regarding mentalizing (understanding others' mental states) and narrative coherence (structured storytelling), (2) highlighting the relations between both skills by examining behavioral observations and shared neural substrates, (3) providing an integrated perspective regarding novel diagnostic tools and support services, and (4) raising awareness of adult autism. We suggest that mentalizing and narrative coherence are related at the behavioral level and neural level. In addition to the traditional mentalizing network, the cerebellum probably serves as an important hub in shared cerebral networks implicated in mentalizing and narrative coherence. Future autism research and support services should tackle new questions within a framework of social cerebellar (dys)functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Bylemans
- Brain, Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Elien Heleven
- Brain, Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Kris Baetens
- Brain, Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Brain, Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Chris Baeken
- Ghent University: Department of Head and Skin (UZGent), Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Belgium; Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZ Brussel), Brussels, Belgium; Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Brain, Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
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Li M, Pu M, Baetens K, Baeken C, Deroost N, Heleven E, Van Overwalle F. Mind your step: social cerebellum in interactive navigation. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:6648373. [PMID: 35866545 PMCID: PMC9949501 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Revised: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The posterior cerebellum contributes to dynamic social cognition by building representations and predictions about sequences in which social interactions typically take place. However, the extent to which violations of prior social expectations during human interaction activate the cerebellum remains largely unknown. The present study examined inconsistent actions, which violate the expectations of desired goal outcomes, by using a social navigation paradigm in which a protagonist presented a gift to another agent that was liked or not. As an analogous non-social control condition, a pen was transported via an assembly line and filled with ink that matched the pen's cap or not. Participants (n = 25) were required to memorize and subsequently reproduce the sequence of the protagonist's or pen's trajectory. As hypothesized, expectation violations in social (vs non-social) sequencing were associated with activation in the posterior cerebellum (Crus 1/2) and other cortical mentalizing regions. In contrast, non-social (vs social) sequencing recruited cerebellar lobules IV-V, the action observation network and the navigation-related parahippocampal gyrus. There was little effect in comparison with a social non-sequencing control condition, where participants only had to observe the trajectory. The findings provide further evidence of cerebellar involvement in signaling inconsistencies in social outcomes of goal-directed navigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meijia Li
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050 , Belgium
| | - Min Pu
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050 , Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050 , Belgium.,Brussels University Consultation Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent Experimental, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium.,Department of Psychiatry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1090, Belgium.,Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5600, The Netherlands
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050 , Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050 , Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050 , Belgium
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12
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To Do or Not to Do: The cerebellum and neocortex contribute to predicting sequences of social intentions. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2023; 23:323-339. [PMID: 36788200 PMCID: PMC10049953 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-023-01071-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023]
Abstract
Humans read the minds of others to predict their actions and efficiently navigate social environments, a capacity called mentalizing. Accumulating evidence suggests that the cerebellum, especially Crus 1 and 2, and lobule IX are involved in identifying the sequence of others' actions. In the current study, we investigated the neural correlates that underly predicting others' intentions and how this plays out in the sequence of their actions. We developed a novel intention prediction task, which required participants to put protagonists' behaviors in the correct chronological order based on the protagonists' honest or deceitful intentions (i.e., inducing true or false beliefs in others). We found robust activation of cerebellar lobule IX and key mentalizing areas in the neocortex when participants ordered protagonists' intentional behaviors compared with not ordering behaviors or to ordering object scenarios. Unlike a previous task that involved prediction based on personality traits that recruited cerebellar Crus 1 and 2, and lobule IX (Haihambo et al., 2021), the present task recruited only the cerebellar lobule IX. These results suggest that cerebellar lobule IX may be generally involved in social action sequence prediction, and that different areas of the cerebellum are specialized for distinct mentalizing functions.
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13
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Pu M, Ma Q, Haihambo N, Li M, Baeken C, Baetens K, Deroost N, Heleven E, Van Overwalle F. Dynamic causal modeling of cerebello-cerebral connectivity when sequencing trait-implying actions. Cereb Cortex 2022; 33:6366-6381. [PMID: 36573440 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 12/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Prior studies suggest that the cerebellum contributes to the prediction of action sequences as well as the detection of social violations. In this dynamic causal modeling study, we explored the effective connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in processing social action sequences. A first model aimed to explore functional cerebello-cerebral connectivity when learning trait/stereotype-implying action sequences. We found many significant bidirectional connectivities between mentalizing areas of the cerebellum and the cerebrum including the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Within the cerebrum, we found significant connectivity between the right TPJ and the mPFC, and between the TPJ bilaterally. A second model aimed to investigate cerebello-cerebral connectivity when conflicting information arises. We found many significant closed loops between the cerebellum and cerebral mentalizing (e.g. dorsal mPFC) and executive control areas (e.g. medial and lateral prefrontal cortices). Additional closed loops were found within the cerebral mentalizing and executive networks. The current results confirm prior research on effective connectivity linking the cerebellum with mentalizing areas in the cerebrum for predicting social sequences, and extend it to cerebral executive areas for social violations. Overall, this study emphasizes the critical role of cerebello-cerebral connectivity in understanding social sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Pu
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Naem Haihambo
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Meijia Li
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Ghent University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) lab, , 9000, Ghent , Belgium
- University Hospital (UZBrussel) Department of Psychiatry, , 1090, Brussels , Belgium
- Eindhoven University of Technology , Department of Electrical Engineering, 5612, Eindhoven, Th e Netherlands
| | - Kris Baetens
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, , 1050, Brussels , Belgium
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14
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Pu M, Ma Q, Heleven E, Delplanque J, Baetens K, Haihambo N, Baeken C, Deroost N, Van Overwalle F. This is not who you are: The posterior cerebellum and stereotype-inconsistent action sequences. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:1090-1107. [PMID: 35411417 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-022-01005-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Recent research has indicated that the posterior cerebellum plays a crucial role in social cognition by encoding sequences of social actions. This study investigates its role in learning sequences of stereotype-implying actions by group members. We presented a set of five sentences that each described a group member who performed either stereotype-consistent or inconsistent actions. Participants were instructed to memorize the temporal order of the sentences and infer a common stereotype of the group. As a comparison, we included control conditions where participants had to memorize sequences of nonsocial consistent events or simply read stereotype-consistent sentences without memorizing their order. The results showed that the posterior cerebellum was strongly activated when participants were memorizing the order of the social actions, as opposed to simply reading these social actions. More importantly, when the social actions were inconsistent as opposed to consistent with the stereotype of the group, the posterior cerebellum was activated more strongly. This activation occurred together with cortical recruitment of the mentalizing network involving the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) during social actions, and additionally the conflict monitoring network involving the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior medial frontal cortex (pmFC) during stereotype-inconsistent actions. These findings suggest that the cerebellum supports not only learning of low-level action sequences, but also of their high-level social implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Pu
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Qianying Ma
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jeroen Delplanque
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Naem Haihambo
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) lab, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZBrussel), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
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15
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Heleven E, Bylemans T, Ma Q, Baeken C, Baetens K. Impaired sequence generation: a preliminary comparison between high functioning autistic and neurotypical adults. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:946482. [PMID: 36147543 PMCID: PMC9486458 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.946482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Earlier research demonstrated robust cerebellar involvement in sequencing, including high-level social information sequencing that requires mental state attributions, termed mentalizing. Earlier research also found cerebellar deficiencies in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) which are characterized by social difficulties. However, studies on high-level social sequencing functionality by persons with ASD are almost non-existent. In this study, we, therefore, perform a comparison between behavioral performances of high-functioning ASD and neurotypical participants on the Picture and Verbal Sequencing Tasks. In these tasks, participants are requested to put separate events (depicted in cartoon-like pictures or behavioral sentences, respectively) in their correct chronological order. To do so, some of these events require understanding of high-level social beliefs, of social routines (i.e., scripts), or nonsocial mechanical functionality. As expected, on the Picture Sequencing task, we observed longer response times for persons with ASD (in comparison with neurotypical controls) when ordering sequences requiring an understanding of social beliefs and social scripts, but not when ordering nonsocial mechanical events. This confirms our hypotheses that social sequence processing is impaired in ASD. The verbal version of this task did not reveal differences between groups. Our results are the first step toward new theoretical insights for social impairments of persons with ASD. They highlight the importance of taking into account sequence processing, and indirectly the cerebellum when investigating ASD difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elien Heleven
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- *Correspondence: Elien Heleven
| | - Tom Bylemans
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Head and Skin (UZGent), Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
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16
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Bylemans T, Heleven E, Baetens K, Deroost N, Baeken C, Van Overwalle F. A narrative sequencing and mentalizing training for adults with autism: A pilot study. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:941272. [PMID: 36062258 PMCID: PMC9433774 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.941272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Adults diagnosed with autism experience difficulties with understanding the mental states of others, or themselves (mentalizing) and with adequately sequencing personal stories (narrative coherence). Given that the posterior cerebellum is implicated in both skills, as well as in the etiology of autism, we developed a narrative sequencing and mentalizing training for autistic adults. Participants with an official autism diagnosis were randomly assigned to a Training group (n = 17) or a waiting-list Control group (n = 15). The Training group took part in six weekly sessions in groups of three participants lasting each about 60 min. During training, participants had to (re)tell stories from the perspective of the original storyteller and answer questions that required mentalizing. We found significant improvements in mentalizing about others’ beliefs and in narrative coherence for the Training group compared to the Control group immediately after the training compared to before the training. Almost all participants from the Training group expressed beneficial effects of the training on their mood and half of the participants reported positive effects on their self-confidence in social situations. All participants recommended the current training to others. Results are discussed in light of cerebellar theories on sequencing of social actions during mentalizing. Further improvements to the program are suggested. Our results highlight the potential clinical utility of adopting a neuroscience-informed approach to developing novel therapeutic interventions for autistic populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Bylemans
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
- *Correspondence: Tom Bylemans,
| | - Elien Heleven
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Department of Head and Skin (UZGent), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZ Brussel), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Brain Body and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
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17
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Pu M, Heleven E, Ma Q, Bylemans T, Baetens K, Haihambo NP, Baeken C, Deroost N, Van Overwalle F. The posterior cerebellum and social action sequences in a cooperative context. CEREBELLUM (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2022:10.1007/s12311-022-01420-5. [PMID: 35648333 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-022-01420-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Recent research has suggested that the posterior cerebellum encodes predictions and sequences of social actions, and also supports detecting inconsistent trait-implying actions of individuals as discussed by Pu et al. (2020, 2021). However, little is known about the role of the posterior cerebellum in detecting sequencing and inconsistencies by a group of individuals during social interaction. Therefore, the present study investigates these cerebellar functions during inconsistent trait-implying actions in a cooperative context. We presented scenarios in which two fictitious protagonists work together to accomplish a common (positive or negative) goal, followed by six sentences describing actions that implied a personality trait of the protagonists. Participants had to memorize the sequence of these actions. Crucially, the implied trait of the actions of the first protagonist contributed to achieving the goal, whereas the implied trait of the second protagonist was either consistent or inconsistent with that goal. As comparison, we added control conditions where participants had to memorize sequences of nonsocial events (implying the same characteristic of two objects), or simply read the social actions without memorizing their order. We found that the posterior cerebellum was activated while memorizing the sequence of social actions compared to simply reading these actions. More importantly, the cerebellar Crus was more strongly activated when detecting inconsistent (as opposed to consistent) actions, especially when inconsistent negative actions impeded a positive goal, relative to consistent negative actions that supported a negative goal. In conclusion, these findings confirm the crucial role of the posterior cerebellum in memorizing social action sequences and extend the cerebellar function in identifying inconsistencies in an individual's actions in a social collaborative context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Pu
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Tom Bylemans
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Naem Patemoshela Haihambo
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZBrussel), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
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18
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Ma Q, Pu M, Haihambo NP, Baetens K, Heleven E, Deroost N, Baeken C, Van Overwalle F. The posterior cerebellum and temporoparietal junction support explicit learning of social belief sequences. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:467-491. [PMID: 34811709 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00966-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/16/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
This study tests the hypothesis that the posterior cerebellum is involved in social cognition by identifying and automatizing sequences of social actions. We applied a belief serial reaction time task (Belief SRT task), which requires mentalizing about two protagonists' beliefs about how many flowers they receive. The protagonists' beliefs could either be true or false depending on their orientation (true belief: oriented towards and directly observing the flowers; or false belief: oriented away and knowing only prior information about flowers). A Control SRT task was created by replacing protagonists and their beliefs with shapes and colors. Participants were explicitly told that there was a standard sequence related to the two protagonists' belief orientations (Belief SRT task) or the shapes' colors (Control SRT task). Both tasks included a Training phase where the standard sequence was repeated and a Test phase where this standard sequence was interrupted by random sequences. As hypothesized, compared with the Control SRT task, the Belief SRT task recruited the posterior cerebellar Crus II and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) more. Faster response times were correlated with less Crus II activation and with more TPJ activation, suggesting that the Crus II supported automatizing the belief sequence while the TPJ supported inferring the protagonists' beliefs. Also as hypothesized, compared with an implicit version of the Belief SRT task (i.e., participants did not know about the existence of sequences; Ma, Pu, et al., 2021b), the cerebellar Crus I &II was engaged less during initial training and automatic application of the sequence, and the cortical TPJ was activated more in processing random sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Min Pu
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Naem P Haihambo
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Department of Head and Skin, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent Experimental, Ghent, Belgium
- Psychiatry (GHEP) Laboratory, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital (UZBrussel), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B -, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
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19
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Li H, Yuan Q, Luo YJ, Tao W. A new perspective for understanding the contributions of the cerebellum to reading: The cerebro-cerebellar mapping hypothesis. Neuropsychologia 2022; 170:108231. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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20
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Beuriat PA, Cohen-Zimerman S, Smith GNL, Krueger F, Gordon B, Grafman J. Evidence of the role of the cerebellum in cognitive theory of mind using voxel-based lesion mapping. Sci Rep 2022; 12:4999. [PMID: 35322157 PMCID: PMC8943209 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09104-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Theory of Mind (ToM) is a social-cognitive skill that allows the understanding of the intentions, beliefs, and desires of others. There is a distinction between affective and cognitive ToM, with evidence showing that these processes rely on partially distinct neural networks. The role of the cerebellum in social cognition has only been rarely explored. In this study, we tested whether the cerebellum is necessary for cognitive and affective ToM performance. We investigated adults with traumatic brain injury (n = 193) and healthy controls (n = 52) using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) and by measuring the impact on functional connectivity. First, we observed that damage to the cerebellum affected pure Cognitive ToM processing. Further, we found a lateralization effect for the role of the cerebellum in cognitive ToM with participants with left cerebellar injury performing worse than those with right cerebellar injury. Both VLSM and standard statistical analysis provided evidence that left cerebellar Crus I and lobule VI contributed to ToM processing. Lastly, we found that disconnection of the left thalamic projection and the left fronto-striatal fasciculus was associated with poor cognitive ToM performance. Our study is the first to reveal direct causal neuropsychological evidence for a role of the cerebellum in some but not all types of ToM, processing. It reinforces the idea that social cognition relies on a complex network functionally connected through white matter pathways that include the cerebellum. It supports evidence that the neural networks underpinning the different types of ToM can be differentiated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre-Aurélien Beuriat
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, USA. .,Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA. .,Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France. .,Rockfeller School of Medicine, Claude Bernard University, Lyon, France.
| | - Shira Cohen-Zimerman
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, USA.,Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Gretchen N L Smith
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Frank Krueger
- School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Barry Gordon
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.,Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Jordan Grafman
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, USA.,Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
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21
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Metoki A, Wang Y, Olson IR. The Social Cerebellum: A Large-Scale Investigation of Functional and Structural Specificity and Connectivity. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:987-1003. [PMID: 34428293 PMCID: PMC8890001 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The cerebellum has been traditionally disregarded in relation to nonmotor functions, but recent findings indicate it may be involved in language, affective processing, and social functions. Mentalizing, or Theory of Mind (ToM), is the ability to infer mental states of others and this skill relies on a distributed network of brain regions. Here, we leveraged large-scale multimodal neuroimaging data to elucidate the structural and functional role of the cerebellum in mentalizing. We used functional activations to determine whether the cerebellum has a domain-general or domain-specific functional role, and effective connectivity and probabilistic tractography to map the cerebello-cerebral mentalizing network. We found that the cerebellum is organized in a domain-specific way and that there is a left cerebellar effective and structural lateralization, with more and stronger effective connections from the left cerebellar hemisphere to the right cerebral mentalizing areas, and greater cerebello-thalamo-cortical and cortico-ponto-cerebellar streamline counts from and to the left cerebellum. Our study provides novel insights to the network organization of the cerebellum, an overlooked brain structure, and mentalizing, one of humans' most essential abilities to navigate the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athanasia Metoki
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
- Department of Neurology,Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Yin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Ingrid R Olson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
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22
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Van Overwalle F, Pu M, Ma Q, Li M, Haihambo N, Baetens K, Deroost N, Baeken C, Heleven E. The Involvement of the Posterior Cerebellum in Reconstructing and Predicting Social Action Sequences. THE CEREBELLUM 2021; 21:733-741. [PMID: 34694590 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-021-01333-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Recent advances in social neuroscience have highlighted the critical role of the cerebellum and especially the posterior cerebellar Crus in social mentalizing (i.e., theory of mind). Research in the past 5 years has provided growing evidence supporting the view that the posterior cerebellum builds internal action models of our social interactions to predict how other people's actions will be executed, and what our most likely responses to these actions will be. This paper presents an overview of a series of fMRI experiments on novel tasks involving a combination of (a) the learning or generation of chronological sequences of social actions either in an explicit or implicit manner, which (b) require social mentalizing on another person's mental state such as goals, beliefs, and implied traits. Together, the results strongly confirm the central role of the posterior cerebellar Crus in identifying and automatizing action sequencing during social mentalizing, and in predicting future action sequences based on social mentalizing inferences about others. This research program has important implications: It provides for the first time (a) fruitful starting points for diagnosing and investigating social sequencing dysfunctions in a variety of mental disorders which have also been related to cerebellar dysfunctions, (b) provides the necessary tools for testing whether non-invasive neurostimulation targeting the posterior cerebellum has a causal effect on social functioning, and (c) whether these stimulation techniques and training programs guided by novel cerebellar social sequencing insights, can be exploited to increase posterior cerebellar plasticity in order to alleviate social impairments in mental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Min Pu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Meijia Li
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Naem Haihambo
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
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23
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Van Overwalle F, Baeken C, Campanella S, Crunelle CL, Heleven E, Kornreich C, Leggio M, Noël X, Vanderhasselt MA, Baetens K. The Role of the Posterior Cerebellum in Dysfunctional Social Sequencing. THE CEREBELLUM 2021; 21:1123-1134. [PMID: 34637054 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-021-01330-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/27/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Recent advances in social neuroscience have highlighted the critical role of the cerebellum in social cognition, and especially the posterior cerebellum. Studies have supported the view that the posterior cerebellum builds internal action models of our social interactions to predict how other people's actions will be executed and what our most likely responses are to these actions. This mechanism allows to better anticipate action sequences during social interactions in an automatic and intuitive way and to fine-tune these anticipations, making it easier to understand other's social behaviors and mental states (e.g., beliefs, intentions, traits). In this paper, we argue that the central role of the posterior cerebellum in identifying and automatizing social action sequencing provides a fruitful starting point for investigating social dysfunctions in a variety of clinical pathologies, such as autism, obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorder, depression, and addiction. Our key hypothesis is that dysfunctions of the posterior cerebellum lead to under- or overuse of inflexible social routines and lack of plasticity for learning new, more adaptive, social automatisms. We briefly review past research supporting this view and propose a program of research to test our hypothesis. This approach might alleviate a variety of mental problems of individuals who suffer from inflexible automatizations that stand in the way of adjustable and intuitive social behavior, by increasing posterior cerebellar plasticity using noninvasive neurostimulation or neuro-guided training programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium.
| | - Chris Baeken
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium.,Department of Psychiatry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Brussel, Belgium.,Department of Psychiatry, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry Lab, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.,Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
| | - Salvatore Campanella
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Médicale Et d'Addictologie, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.,UNI Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.,Faculty of Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | - Cleo L Crunelle
- Department of Psychiatry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Charles Kornreich
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Médicale Et d'Addictologie, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.,UNI Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.,Faculty of Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | - Maria Leggio
- Department of Psychology & Ataxia Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Sapienza University of Roma, Rome, Italy
| | - Xavier Noël
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Médicale Et d'Addictologie, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.,UNI Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.,Faculty of Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | | | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium.,Brussels University Consultation Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
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24
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Li M, Ma Q, Baetens K, Pu M, Deroost N, Baeken C, Heleven E, Van Overwalle F. Social cerebellum in goal-directed navigation. Soc Neurosci 2021; 16:467-485. [PMID: 34404321 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1970017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The posterior cerebellum is responsible for the understanding and learning of sequences of actions by others, which are a prerequisite for social understanding. This study investigates this cerebellar function while navigating toward a goal in a social context. Participants undertook a novel social navigation task requiring them to memorize and subsequently reproduce a protagonist's trajectory through a grid toward a desirable goal. As a nonsocial control condition, a ball underwent the same trajectory by passively rolling through the grid toward the same endpoint. To establish that memorizing and reproducing a trajectory is a critical cerebellar function, two non-sequencing control conditions were created, which involved the observation only of the trajectory by the protagonist or ball. Our results showed that the posterior cerebellar Crus II was involved in memorizing both social and nonsocial trajectories, along with the parahippocampal gyrus and other cortical areas involved in social cognition. As hypothesized, cerebellar Crus I was more active when memorizing social as opposed to nonsocial trajectories. Moreover, cerebellar Crus I and II, and lobule VI, were activated when reproducing both social and nonsocial trajectories. These findings highlight the involvement of the posterior cerebellar Crus in supporting human goal-directed social navigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meijia Li
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychiatry, Brussels University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Min Pu
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
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25
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New Horizons on Non-invasive Brain Stimulation of the Social and Affective Cerebellum. THE CEREBELLUM 2021; 21:482-496. [PMID: 34270081 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-021-01300-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/22/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The cerebellum is increasingly attracting scientists interested in basic and clinical research of neuromodulation. Here, we review available studies that used either transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine the role of the posterior cerebellum in different aspects of social and affective cognition, from mood regulation to emotion discrimination, and from the ability to identify biological motion to higher-level social inferences (mentalizing). We discuss how at the functional level the role of the posterior cerebellum in these different processes may be explained by a generic prediction mechanism and how the posterior cerebellum may exert this function within different cortico-cerebellar and cerebellar limbic networks involved in social cognition. Furthermore, we suggest to deepen our understanding of the cerebro-cerebellar circuits involved in different aspects of social cognition by employing promising stimulation approaches that have so far been primarily used to study cortical functions and networks, such as paired-pulse TMS, frequency-tuned stimulation, state-dependent protocols, and chronometric TMS. The ability to modulate cerebro-cerebellar connectivity opens up possible clinical applications for improving impairments in social and affective skills associated with cerebellar abnormalities.
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26
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Haihambo N, Ma Q, Baeken C, Deroost N, Baetens K, Heleven E, Van Overwalle F. Social Thinking is for Doing: The Posterior Cerebellum Supports Prediction of Social Actions Based on Personality Traits. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 17:241-251. [PMID: 34255849 PMCID: PMC8847907 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2021] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Can we predict the future by reading others’ minds? This study explores whether attributing others’ personality traits facilitates predictions about their future actions and the temporal order of these future actions. Prior evidence demonstrated that the posterior cerebellar crus is involved in identifying the temporal sequence of social actions and the person’s traits they imply. Based on this, we hypothesized that this area might also be recruited in the reverse process; that is, knowledge of another person’s personality traits supports predictions of temporal sequences of others’ actions. In this study, participants were informed about the trait of a person and then had to select actions that were consistent with this information and arrange them in the most likely temporal order. As hypothesized, the posterior cerebellar crus 1 and crus 2 were strongly activated when compared to a control task which involved only the selection of actions (without temporal ordering) or which depicted non-social objects and their characteristics. Our findings highlight the important function of the posterior cerebellar crus in the prediction of social action sequences in social understanding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naem Haihambo
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Chris Baeken
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Natacha Deroost
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
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27
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Macro- and micro-structural cerebellar and cortical characteristics of cognitive empathy towards fictional characters in healthy individuals. Sci Rep 2021; 11:8804. [PMID: 33888760 PMCID: PMC8062506 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87861-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Few investigations have analyzed the neuroanatomical substrate of empathic capacities in healthy subjects, and most of them have neglected the potential involvement of cerebellar structures. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between bilateral cerebellar macro- and micro-structural measures and levels of cognitive and affective trait empathy (measured by Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI) in a sample of 70 healthy subjects of both sexes. We also estimated morphometric variations of cerebral Gray Matter structures, to ascertain whether the potential empathy-related peculiarities in cerebellar areas were accompanied by structural differences in other cerebral regions. At macro-structural level, the volumetric differences were analyzed by Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM)- and Region of Interest (ROI)-based approaches, and at a micro-structural level, we analyzed Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data, focusing in particular on Mean Diffusivity and Fractional Anisotropy. Fantasy IRI-subscale was found to be positively associated with volumes in right cerebellar Crus 2 and pars triangularis of inferior frontal gyrus. The here described morphological variations of cerebellar Crus 2 and pars triangularis allow to extend the traditional cortico-centric view of cognitive empathy to the cerebellar regions and indicate that in empathizing with fictional characters the cerebellar and frontal areas are co-recruited.
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28
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Pu M, Ma Q, Heleven E, Haihambo NP, Van Overwalle F. The posterior cerebellum and inconsistent trait implications when learning the sequence of actions. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:696-706. [PMID: 33769547 PMCID: PMC8259289 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2020] [Revised: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been proposed that the cerebellum contributes to social cognition. Based on the view that cerebellar internal models create predictions on motions and actions, we hypothesize that the posterior cerebellum supports identifying temporal sequences of persons’ actions as well as detecting inconsistent actions that violate the implied trait. Participants were required to memorize the temporal order of a set of sentences that implied a personality trait. Importantly, the sentence sets were designed in such a way that the first half of each set involved actions that were consistent with the same trait, while the other half was either consistent or inconsistent with that trait. As expected, we found robust posterior cerebellar activation when memorizing the order of the actions, irrespective of trait consistency, but more crucially also for actions implying an inconsistent trait in comparison to consistent trait actions. We also found that the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cerebellum were associated with confidence level in retrieving the sequences. This study supports the hypothesis that the posterior cerebellum identifies and predicts the low-level temporal order of actions and demonstrates for the first time that this area is also involved in the high-level prediction of trait implications of those actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Pu
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Qianying Ma
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elien Heleven
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Naem Patemoshela Haihambo
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Frank Van Overwalle
- Faculty of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Brussels, Belgium
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29
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Van Overwalle F, Manto M, Cattaneo Z, Clausi S, Ferrari C, Gabrieli JDE, Guell X, Heleven E, Lupo M, Ma Q, Michelutti M, Olivito G, Pu M, Rice LC, Schmahmann JD, Siciliano L, Sokolov AA, Stoodley CJ, van Dun K, Vandervert L, Leggio M. Consensus Paper: Cerebellum and Social Cognition. CEREBELLUM (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2020; 19:833-868. [PMID: 32632709 PMCID: PMC7588399 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-020-01155-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 186] [Impact Index Per Article: 46.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The traditional view on the cerebellum is that it controls motor behavior. Although recent work has revealed that the cerebellum supports also nonmotor functions such as cognition and affect, only during the last 5 years it has become evident that the cerebellum also plays an important social role. This role is evident in social cognition based on interpreting goal-directed actions through the movements of individuals (social "mirroring") which is very close to its original role in motor learning, as well as in social understanding of other individuals' mental state, such as their intentions, beliefs, past behaviors, future aspirations, and personality traits (social "mentalizing"). Most of this mentalizing role is supported by the posterior cerebellum (e.g., Crus I and II). The most dominant hypothesis is that the cerebellum assists in learning and understanding social action sequences, and so facilitates social cognition by supporting optimal predictions about imminent or future social interaction and cooperation. This consensus paper brings together experts from different fields to discuss recent efforts in understanding the role of the cerebellum in social cognition, and the understanding of social behaviors and mental states by others, its effect on clinical impairments such as cerebellar ataxia and autism spectrum disorder, and how the cerebellum can become a potential target for noninvasive brain stimulation as a therapeutic intervention. We report on the most recent empirical findings and techniques for understanding and manipulating cerebellar circuits in humans. Cerebellar circuitry appears now as a key structure to elucidate social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mario Manto
- Mediathèque Jean Jacquy, Service de Neurologie, CHU-Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium
- Service des Neurosciences, Université de Mons, Mons, Belgium
| | - Zaira Cattaneo
- University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Silvia Clausi
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | | | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
| | - Xavier Guell
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Michela Lupo
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
| | - Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marco Michelutti
- Service de Neurologie & Neuroscape@NeuroTech Platform, Département des Neurosciences Cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Service de Neurologie Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Giusy Olivito
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Min Pu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Laura C. Rice
- Department of Psychology and Department of Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC USA
| | - Jeremy D. Schmahmann
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
| | - Libera Siciliano
- Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Arseny A. Sokolov
- Service de Neurologie & Neuroscape@NeuroTech Platform, Département des Neurosciences Cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Service de Neurologie Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Neurology, University Neurorehabilitation, University Hospital Inselspital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London (UCL), London, UK
- Neuroscape Center, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA USA
| | - Catherine J. Stoodley
- Department of Psychology and Department of Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC USA
| | - Kim van Dun
- Neurologic Rehabilitation Research, Rehabilitation Research Institute (REVAL), Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Larry Vandervert
- American Nonlinear Systems, 1529 W. Courtland Avenue, Spokane, WA 99205-2608 USA
| | - Maria Leggio
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
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30
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Klaus J, Schutter DJLG. Functional topography of anger and aggression in the human cerebellum. Neuroimage 2020; 226:117582. [PMID: 33221449 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
New insights into the functional neuroanatomic correlates of emotions point toward the involvement of the cerebellum in anger and aggression. To identify cerebellar regions commonly activated in tasks examining the experience of anger and threat as well as exerting an aggressive response, two coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses reporting a total of 57 cerebellar activation foci from 819 participants were performed. For anger processing (18 studies), results showed significant clusters in the bilateral posterior cerebellum, overlapping with results from previous meta-analyses on emotion processing, and implying functional connectivity to cognitive, limbic, and social canonic networks in the cerebral cortex. By contrast, active aggression expression (10 studies) was associated with significant clusters in more anterior regions of the cerebellum, overlapping with cerebellar somatosensory and motor regions and displaying functional connectivity with the somatomotor and default mode network. This study not only strengthens the notion that the cerebellum is involved in emotion processing, but also provides the first quantitative evidence for distinct cerebellar functional activation patterns related to anger and aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana Klaus
- Utrecht University, Helmholtz Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology The Netherlands
| | - Dennis J L G Schutter
- Utrecht University, Helmholtz Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology The Netherlands.
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