Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2020 Jan 30;15(1):12-22. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa015.
Experience of interpersonal trauma and violence alters self-other distinction and mentalising abilities (also known as theory of mind, or ToM), yet little is known about their neural correlates. This fMRI study assessed temporoparietal junction (TPJ) activation, an area strongly implicated in interpersonal processing, during spontaneous mentalising in 35 adult women with histories of childhood physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse (childhood abuse; CA) and 31 women without such experiences (unaffected comparisons; UC). Participants watched movies during which an agent formed true or false beliefs about the location of a ball, while participants always knew the true location of the ball. As hypothesised, right TPJ activation was greater for UCs compared to CAs for false vs true belief conditions. In addition, CAs showed increased functional connectivity relative to UCs between the rTPJ and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Finally, the agent's belief about the presence of the ball influenced participants' responses (ToM index), but without group differences. These findings highlight that experiencing early interpersonal trauma can alter brain areas involved in the neural processing of ToM and perspective-taking during adulthood.
人际创伤和暴力的经历会改变自我与他人的区分和心理化能力（也称为心理理论，或 ToM），但对于其神经相关性知之甚少。这项 fMRI 研究评估了颞顶联合区（TPJ）的激活，该区域在人际处理中起着重要作用，同时在 35 名有童年身体、性和/或情感虐待史的成年女性（童年虐待；CA）和 31 名没有此类经历的女性（未受影响的对照组；UC）中进行了自发心理化期间评估了该区域的激活。参与者观看电影，其中一个代理人对球的位置形成了真实或虚假的信念，而参与者总是知道球的真实位置。正如假设的那样，与 UC 相比，对于错误与正确信念条件，rTPJ 的右激活在 UC 中更高。此外，与 UC 相比，CA 显示 rTPJ 和背内侧前额叶皮层之间的功能连接增加。最后，代理人对球的存在的信念影响了参与者的反应（ToM 指数），但没有组间差异。这些发现强调了早期人际创伤经历会改变成年期心理化和换位思考的神经处理中涉及的大脑区域。
