Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Germany.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Jul;35(7):2950-65. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22377. Epub 2013 Sep 30.
The neurocognitive components of Theory of Mind reasoning remain poorly understood. In particular the role of the posterior medial prefrontal cortex in the processing of other's mental states such as beliefs that are incongruent with one's own knowledge of reality is not clear-cut. It is unknown whether this region is involved in computing discrepant mental states or in subsequently resolving a response conflict between the discrepant others' and one's own beliefs. To test this, we adapted a false belief paradigm for the separate inspection of functional brain activity related to (1) the computation of diverging beliefs and (2) the subsequent consideration and selection of another's or one's own belief. Based on statistical parametric findings from functional neuroimaging, we employed dynamic causal modelling combined with Bayesian model selection to further characterize the interplay of resulting brain regions. In the initial computation of diverging beliefs, the posterior medial prefrontal cortex (pMPFC) and the bilateral temporoparietal cortex were crucially involved. The findings suggest that the bilateral temporal cortex engages in the construction and adjustment of diverging mental states by encoding relevant environmental information. The pMPFC inhibits this stimulus-bound processing which helps to compute discrepant mental states and process another's false belief decoupled from one's own perception of reality. In the subsequent question phase the right temporoparietal cortex showed increased activity related to switching to and reconsidering another's beliefs in order to select the correct response.
心理理论推理的神经认知成分仍未得到很好的理解。特别是，后内侧前额叶皮层在处理他人的心理状态（如与自己对现实的知识不一致的信念）方面的作用尚不清楚。目前还不清楚该区域是否参与计算不一致的心理状态，或者是否参与随后解决不一致的他人信念与自己信念之间的反应冲突。为了检验这一点，我们改编了一个错误信念范式，分别检查与（1）发散信念的计算和（2）随后对他人或自己的信念的考虑和选择相关的功能大脑活动。基于功能神经影像学的统计参数发现，我们采用了动态因果建模与贝叶斯模型选择相结合的方法，进一步描述了结果大脑区域的相互作用。在发散信念的初始计算中，后内侧前额叶皮层（pMPFC）和双侧颞顶叶皮层至关重要。研究结果表明，双侧颞叶皮层通过编码相关的环境信息参与构建和调整发散的心理状态。pMPFC 抑制了这种刺激绑定的处理，有助于计算不一致的心理状态，并处理与自己对现实的感知分离的他人的错误信念。在随后的问题阶段，右颞顶叶皮层显示出与转换和重新考虑他人的信念相关的活动增加，以便选择正确的反应。
