Hassabis Demis, Spreng R Nathan, Rusu Andrei A, Robbins Clifford A, Mar Raymond A, Schacter Daniel L
Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK.
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2014 Aug;24(8):1979-87. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht042. Epub 2013 Mar 5.
The behaviors of other people are often central to envisioning the future. The ability to accurately predict the thoughts and actions of others is essential for successful social interactions, with far-reaching consequences. Despite its importance, little is known about how the brain represents people in order to predict behavior. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants learned the unique personality of 4 protagonists and imagined how each would behave in different scenarios. The protagonists' personalities were composed of 2 traits: Agreeableness and Extraversion. Which protagonist was being imagined was accurately inferred based solely on activity patterns in the medial prefrontal cortex using multivariate pattern classification, providing novel evidence that brain activity can reveal whom someone is thinking about. Lateral temporal and posterior cingulate cortex discriminated between different degrees of agreeableness and extraversion, respectively. Functional connectivity analysis confirmed that regions associated with trait-processing and individual identities were functionally coupled. Activity during the imagination task, and revealed by functional connectivity, was consistent with the default network. Our results suggest that distinct regions code for personality traits, and that the brain combines these traits to represent individuals. The brain then uses this "personality model" to predict the behavior of others in novel situations.
他人的行为往往是设想未来的核心。准确预测他人的想法和行为的能力对于成功的社交互动至关重要，具有深远的影响。尽管其很重要，但关于大脑如何表征他人以预测行为却知之甚少。在这项功能磁共振成像研究中，参与者了解了4个主角的独特个性，并想象每个主角在不同场景中会如何表现。主角的个性由两个特质组成：宜人性和外向性。使用多变量模式分类，仅根据内侧前额叶皮层的活动模式就能准确推断出正在想象的是哪个主角，这提供了新的证据，表明大脑活动可以揭示某人正在思考谁。颞叶外侧和后扣带回皮层分别区分了不同程度的宜人性和外向性。功能连接分析证实，与特质处理和个体身份相关的区域在功能上是耦合的。想象任务期间的活动，并通过功能连接揭示，与默认网络一致。我们的结果表明，不同的区域编码个性特质，并且大脑将这些特质组合起来以表征个体。然后大脑使用这种“个性模型”来预测他人在新情况下的行为。
