Laboratory of Social and Decision Neuroscience, Korea University Seoul, South Korea ; Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea University Seoul, South Korea.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2013 Nov 26;7:686. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00686. eCollection 2013.
The ability to accurately estimate another person's preferences is crucial for a successful social life. In daily interactions, we often do this on the basis of minimal information. The aims of the present study were (a) to examine whether people can accurately judge others based only on a brief exposure to their appearances, and (b) to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were asked to make guesses about unfamiliar target individuals' preferences for various items after looking at their faces for 3 s. The behavioral results showed that participants estimated others' preferences above chance level. The fMRI data revealed that higher accuracy in preference estimation was associated with greater activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) when participants were guessing the targets' preferences relative to thinking about their own preferences. These findings suggest that accurate estimations of others' preferences may require increased activity in the DMPFC. A functional connectivity analysis revealed that higher accuracy in preference estimation was related to increased functional connectivity between the DMPFC and the brain regions that are known to be involved in theory of mind processing, such as the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus, during correct vs. incorrect guessing trials. On the contrary, the tendency to refer to self-preferences when estimating others' preference was related to greater activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings imply that the DMPFC may be a core region in estimating the preferences of others and that higher accuracy may require stronger communication between the DMPFC and the TPJ and PCC/precuneus, part of a neural network known to be engaged in mentalizing.
准确估计他人偏好的能力对于成功的社交生活至关重要。在日常互动中，我们通常会基于最少的信息来做到这一点。本研究的目的是：（a）检验人们是否仅通过短暂地观察他人的外貌就能准确判断他人；（b）利用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）揭示潜在的神经机制。参与者被要求在观察目标的面部 3 秒后，对不熟悉的目标个体对各种物品的偏好做出猜测。行为结果表明，参与者的猜测高于随机水平。fMRI 数据显示，当参与者猜测目标的偏好时，与思考自己的偏好相比，偏好估计的准确性越高，背内侧前额叶皮层（DMPFC）的活动就越大。这些发现表明，准确估计他人的偏好可能需要 DMPFC 增加活动。功能连接分析显示，在正确和错误猜测试验中，偏好估计的准确性越高，DMPFC 与被认为参与心理理论加工的大脑区域（如颞顶联合区（TPJ）和后扣带回皮层（PCC）/顶下小叶）之间的功能连接就越强。相反，在估计他人偏好时倾向于参考自身偏好与腹内侧前额叶皮层的活动增加有关。这些发现表明，DMPFC 可能是估计他人偏好的核心区域，而更高的准确性可能需要 DMPFC 与 TPJ 和 PCC/顶下小叶之间更强的沟通，这些区域是参与心理化的神经网络的一部分。
