Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Nov;7(8):937-50. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr064. Epub 2011 Oct 17.
This study explores the fMRI correlates of observers making trait inferences about other people under conflicting social cues. Participants were presented with several behavioral descriptions involving an agent that implied a particular trait. The last behavior was either consistent or inconsistent with the previously implied trait. This was done under instructions that elicited either spontaneous trait inferences ('read carefully') or intentional trait inferences ('infer a trait'). The results revealed that when the behavioral descriptions violated earlier trait implications, regardless of instruction, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more strongly recruited as well as the domain-general conflict network including the posterior medial frontal cortex (pmFC) and the right prefrontal cortex (rPFC). These latter two areas were more strongly activated under intentional than spontaneous instructions. These findings suggest that when trait-relevant behavioral information is inconsistent, not only is activity increased in the mentalizing network responsible for trait processing, but control is also passed to a higher level conflict monitoring network in order to detect and resolve the contradiction.
这项研究探讨了观察者在冲突的社会线索下对他人进行特质推断时 fMRI 的相关性。参与者被呈现了几个涉及暗示特定特质的代理人的行为描述。最后一个行为与之前暗示的特质一致或不一致。这是在引发自发特质推断（“仔细阅读”）或有意特质推断（“推断特质”）的指令下完成的。结果表明，无论指令如何，当行为描述违反了早期的特质暗示时，内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）以及包括后内侧额皮质（pmFC）和右侧前额叶皮层（rPFC）在内的一般领域冲突网络都会被更强烈地招募。在后两种情况下，有意指令比自发指令更能激活这些区域。这些发现表明，当与特质相关的行为信息不一致时，不仅负责特质处理的心理化网络的活动增加，而且控制也会传递到更高水平的冲突监测网络，以检测和解决矛盾。
