态度强度中的神经分离:扣带回皮质的不同区域追踪矛盾心理和确定性。
Neural dissociations in attitude strength: Distinct regions of cingulate cortex track ambivalence and certainty.
作者信息
Luttrell Andrew, Stillman Paul E, Hasinski Adam E, Cunningham William A
机构信息
Department of Psychology, Ohio State University.
Data Science, The Nielsen Company.
出版信息
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2016 Apr;145(4):419-33. doi: 10.1037/xge0000141. Epub 2016 Feb 8.
People's behaviors are often guided by valenced responses to objects in the environment. Beyond positive and negative evaluations, attitudes research has documented the importance of attitude strength--qualities of an attitude that enhance or attenuate its impact and durability. Although neuroscience research has extensively investigated valence, little work exists on other related variables like metacognitive judgments about one's attitudes. It remains unclear, then, whether the various indicators of attitude strength represent a single underlying neural process or whether they reflect independent processes. To examine this, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to identify the neural correlates of attitude strength. Specifically, we focus on ambivalence and certainty, which represent metacognitive judgments that people can make about their evaluations. Although often correlated, prior neuroscience research suggests that these 2 attributes may have distinct neural underpinnings. We investigate this by having participants make evaluative judgments of visually presented words while undergoing fMRI. After scanning, participants rated the degree of ambivalence and certainty they felt regarding their attitudes toward each word. We found that these 2 judgments corresponded to distinct brain regions' activity during the process of evaluation. Ambivalence corresponded to activation in anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex. Certainty, however, corresponded to activation in unique areas of the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex. These results support a model treating ambivalence and certainty as distinct, though related, attitude strength variables, and we discuss implications for both attitudes and neuroscience research.
人们的行为常常受到对环境中物体的效价反应的引导。除了积极和消极评价之外,态度研究已经证明了态度强度的重要性——态度的某些特质会增强或减弱其影响及持久性。尽管神经科学研究已经广泛探究了效价,但对于诸如对自身态度的元认知判断等其他相关变量的研究却很少。那么,态度强度的各种指标是代表单一的潜在神经过程,还是反映独立的过程,仍不明确。为了探究这一点,我们使用功能磁共振成像(fMRI)来确定态度强度的神经关联。具体而言,我们关注矛盾心理和确定性,它们代表了人们对自身评价所能做出的元认知判断。尽管这两者通常相互关联,但先前的神经科学研究表明,这两个属性可能具有不同的神经基础。我们通过让参与者在接受fMRI扫描时对视觉呈现的单词进行评价性判断来对此进行研究。扫描后,参与者对他们对每个单词的态度所感受到的矛盾程度和确定程度进行评分。我们发现,这两种判断在评价过程中对应着不同脑区的活动。矛盾心理对应着前扣带回皮质、背内侧前额叶皮质和后扣带回皮质的激活。然而,确定性则对应着楔前叶/后扣带回皮质独特区域的激活。这些结果支持了一种将矛盾心理和确定性视为不同但相关的态度强度变量的模型,并且我们讨论了其对态度研究和神经科学研究的意义。