Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Department of Data Analysis, University of Ghent, Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2019 Feb;19(1):211-223. doi: 10.3758/s13415-018-00659-y.
In this analysis we explored the effective connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social mentalizing, across five studies (n = 91) involving abstract and complex forms of mentalizing, such as (a) person and group impression formation, based on behavioral descriptions, and (b) constructing personal counterfactual events. Connectivity was analyzed by applying dynamic causal model analysis, which revealed effective connectivity between the mentalizing areas of the cerebellum and cerebrum. The results revealed a significant pattern of bidirectional (closed-loop) connectivity linking the right posterior cerebellum with bilateral temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), associated with behavior understanding. These connections are consistent with known anatomical data on closed loops between the cerebellum and cerebrum, although contralateral closed loops typically dominate. This analysis improves on an earlier psychophysiological interaction analysis of this dataset, which had failed to reveal such evidence of closed loops. Within the cerebrum, there were connections between the bilateral areas of TPJ, as well as connections between bilateral TPJ and the (ventral and dorsal) medial prefrontal cortex. The discussion centers on the function of cerebro-cerebellar connections in generating internal cerebellar "forward" models, potentially serving the automatic understanding, prediction, and error correction of behavioral sequences.
在这项分析中，我们通过五项研究（n=91）探索了小脑与大脑在社会心理化中的有效连接，这些研究涉及抽象和复杂形式的心理化，例如（a）基于行为描述的个人和群体印象形成，以及（b）构建个人反事实事件。通过应用动态因果模型分析来分析连接性，该分析揭示了小脑和大脑的心理化区域之间的有效连接。结果显示了一种双向（闭环）连接的显著模式，将右后小脑与双侧颞顶联合（TPJ）连接起来，与行为理解相关。这些连接与小脑和大脑之间闭环的已知解剖学数据一致，尽管通常是对侧闭环占主导地位。与该数据集的早期心理生理交互分析相比，这种分析有所改进，早期分析未能揭示这种闭环的证据。在大脑内部，TPJ 的双侧区域之间存在连接，以及双侧 TPJ 与（腹侧和背侧）内侧前额叶皮层之间存在连接。讨论集中在脑-小脑连接在产生内部小脑“前向”模型中的作用上，这些模型可能有助于自动理解、预测和纠正行为序列中的错误。
