Science posts

See science posts on page 61 below.

    • 2010
    • R. Nathan Spreng et al
    • Patterns of Brain Activity Supporting Autobiographical Memory, Prospection, and Theory of Mind, and Their Relationship to the Default Mode Network
    • The ability to rise above the present environment and reflect upon the past, the future, and the minds of others is a fundamentally defining human feature. It has been proposed that these three self-referential processes involve a highly interconnected core set of brain structures known as the default mode network (DMN). The DMN appears to be active when individuals are engaged in stimulus-independent thought. This network is a likely candidate for supporting multiple processes, but this idea has not been tested directly. We used fMRI to examine brain activity during autobiographical remembering, prospection, and theory-of-mind reasoning. Using multivariate analyses, we found a common pattern of neural activation underlying all three processes in the DMN. In addition, autobiographical remembering and prospection engaged midline DMN structures to a greater degree and theory-of-mind reasoning engaged lateral DMN areas. A functional connectivity analysis revealed that activity of a crit..
    • 2012
    • Emily R. Stern et al
    • Resting-State Functional Connectivity between Fronto-Parietal and Default Mode Networks in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
    • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by an excessive focus on upsetting or disturbing thoughts, feelings, and images that are internally-generated. Internally-focused thought processes are subserved by the “default mode network" (DMN), which has been found to be hyperactive in OCD during cognitive tasks. In healthy individuals, disengagement from internally-focused thought processes may rely on interactions between DMN and a fronto-parietal network (FPN) associated with external attention and task execution. Altered connectivity between FPN and DMN may contribute to the dysfunctional behavior and brain activity found in OCD. Methods The current study examined interactions between FPN and DMN during rest in 30 patients with OCD (17 unmedicated) and 32 control subjects (17 unmedicated). Timecourses from seven fronto-parietal seeds were correlated across the whole brain and compared between groups. Results OCD patients exhibited altered connectivity between FPN s..
    • 2014
    • Lucina Q. Uddin
    • Salience processing and insular cortical function and dysfunction
    • The brain is constantly bombarded by stimuli, and the relative salience of these inputs determines which are more likely to capture attention. A brain system known as the 'salience network', with key nodes in the insular cortices, has a central role in the detection of behaviourally relevant stimuli and the coordination of neural resources. Emerging evidence suggests that atypical engagement of specific subdivisions of the insula within the salience network is a feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders.
    • 2012
    • Keely A. Muscatell et al
    • Social status modulates neural activity in the mentalizing network
    • The current research explored the neural mechanisms linking social status to perceptions of the social world. Two fMRI studies provide converging evidence that individuals lower in social status are more likely to en- gage neural circuitry often involved in ‘mentalizing’ or thinking about others' thoughts and feelings. Study 1 found that college students' perception of their social status in the university community was related to neural activity in the mentalizing network (e.g., DMPFC, MPFC, precuneus/PCC) while encoding social infor- mation, with lower social status predicting greater neural activity in this network. Study 2 demonstrated that socioeconomic status, an objective indicator of global standing, predicted adolescents' neural activity during the processing of threatening faces, with individuals lower in social status displaying greater activity in the DMPFC, previously associated with mentalizing, and the amygdala, previously associated with emotion/salience processing. T..
    • Social status; SES; Mentalizing; fMRI
    • 2010
    • Carrie L. Masten et al
    • An fMRI investigation of empathy for ‘social pain’ and subsequent prosocial behavior
    • Despite empathy's importance for promoting social interactions, neuroimaging research has largely overlooked empathy during social experiences. Here, we examined neural activity during empathy for social exclusion and assessed how empathy-related neural processes might relate to subsequent prosocial behavior toward the excluded victim. During an fMRI scan, participants observed one person being excluded by two others, and afterwards sent emails to each of these ‘people.’ Later, a group of raters assessed how prosocial (e.g., helpful, comforting) the emails were. Observing exclusion (vs. inclusion) activated regions associated with mentalizing (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus), and highly empathic individuals activated both mentalizing regions and social pain-related regions (anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex). Additionally, the empathy-related activity in the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex was associated with later pros..
    • Empathy; Prosocial behavior; Social exclusion; Functional magnetic resonance imaging
    • 2010
    • Bijoy Atique et al
    • Task-specific activity and connectivity within the mentalizing network during emotion and intention mentalizing
    • Mentalizing, i.e. the process of inferring another person's mental state, is thought to be primarily subserved by three brain regions, the VMPFC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex), precuneus and TPJ (temporo-parietal junction). However, it is still unclear what the exact roles of these regions in mentalizing are. Here, we compare activity within, and functional connectivity between, the VMPFC, precuneus and TPJ during two different mentalizing tasks. Specifically, we examine whether inferring another person's emotion (“emotion mentalizing”) and inferring another person's intention (“intention mentalizing”) activate similar or distinct subregions within the VMPFC, precuneus and TPJ, and whether these different kinds of mentalizing are associated with different patterns of functional connectivity between these regions. Our results indicate that emotion mentalizing and intention mentalizing activate partly distinct subregions of the right and left TPJ that can be spatially separated acros..
    • 2011
    • Yan Fan et al
    • Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis
    • Whilst recent neuroimaging studies have identified a series of different brain regions as being involved in empathy, it remains unclear concerning the activation consistence of these brain regions and their specific functional roles. Using MKDA, a whole-brain based quantitative meta-analysis of recent fMRI studies of empathy was performed. This analysis identified the dACC-aMCC-SMA and bilateral anterior insula as being consistently activated in empathy. Hypothesizing that what are here termed affective–perceptual and cognitive–evaluative forms of empathy might be characterized by different activity patterns, the neural activations in these forms of empathy were compared. The dorsal aMCC was demonstrated to be recruited more frequently in the cognitive–evaluative form of empathy, whilst the right anterior insula was found to be involved in the affective–perceptual form of empathy only. The left anterior insula was active in both forms of empathy. It was concluded that the dACC-aMCC-S..
    • Empathy; Emotion; Anterior insula; Anterior cingulate cortex; ACC; Mid-cingulate cortex; MCC; Supplementary motor area; SMA; fMRI; Meta-analysis; MKDA
    • 2012
    • Thomas Baumgartner et al
    • The mentalizing network orchestrates the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement
    • Parochial altruism—a preference for altruistic behavior towards ingroup members and mistrust or hostility towards outgroup members—is a pervasive feature in human society and strongly shapes the enforcement of social norms. Since the uniqueness of human society critically depends on the enforcement of norms, the understanding of the neural circuitry of the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement is key, but unexplored. To fill this gap, we measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects had the opportunity to punish ingroup members and outgroup members for violating social norms. Findings revealed that subjects' strong punishment of defecting outgroup members is associated with increased activity in a functionally connected network involved in sanction-related decisions (right orbitofrontal gyrus, right lateral prefrontal cortex, right dorsal caudatus). Moreover, the stronger the connectivity in this network, the more outgroup ..
    • parochial altruism;ingroup favoritism;outgroup hostility;third-party punishment;punishment network;justification;mentalizing network;fMRI;neural circuitry;social neuroscience;neuroeconomics
    • 2008
    • Floris P. de Lange et al
    • Complementary Systems for Understanding Action Intentions
    • How humans understand the intention of others' actions remains controversial. Some authors have suggested that intentions are recognized by means of a motor simulation of the observed action with the mirror-neuron system 1, 2 and 3. Others emphasize that intention recognition is an inferential process, often called “mentalizing” or employing a “theory of mind,” which activates areas well outside the motor system 4, 5 and 6. Here, we assessed the contribution of brain regions involved in motor simulation and mentalizing for understanding action intentions via functional brain imaging. Results show that the inferior frontal gyrus (part of the mirror-neuron system) processes the intentionality of an observed action on the basis of the visual properties of the action, irrespective of whether the subject paid attention to the intention or not. Conversely, brain areas that are part of a “mentalizing” network become active when subjects reflect about the intentionality of an observed action..
    • 2013
    • Hideya Koshino et al
    • Coactivation of the Default Mode Network regions and Working Memory Network regions during task preparation
    • The Default Mode Network (DMN) regions exhibit deactivation during a wide variety of resource demanding tasks. However, recent brain imaging studies reported that they also show activation during various cognitive activities. In addition, studies have found a negative correlation between the DMN and the working memory network (WMN). Here, we investigated activity in the DMN and WMN regions during preparation and execution phases of a verbal working memory task. Results showed that the core DMN regions, including the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, and WMN regions were activated during preparation. During execution, however, the WMN regions were activated but the DMN regions were deactivated. The results suggest that activation of these network regions is affected by allocation of attentional resources to the task relevant regions due to task demands. This study extends our previous results by showing that the core DMN regions exhibit activation during task pr..