Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, USA.
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 23;12(1):4999. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-09104-0.
Theory of Mind (ToM) is a social-cognitive skill that allows the understanding of the intentions, beliefs, and desires of others. There is a distinction between affective and cognitive ToM, with evidence showing that these processes rely on partially distinct neural networks. The role of the cerebellum in social cognition has only been rarely explored. In this study, we tested whether the cerebellum is necessary for cognitive and affective ToM performance. We investigated adults with traumatic brain injury (n = 193) and healthy controls (n = 52) using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) and by measuring the impact on functional connectivity. First, we observed that damage to the cerebellum affected pure Cognitive ToM processing. Further, we found a lateralization effect for the role of the cerebellum in cognitive ToM with participants with left cerebellar injury performing worse than those with right cerebellar injury. Both VLSM and standard statistical analysis provided evidence that left cerebellar Crus I and lobule VI contributed to ToM processing. Lastly, we found that disconnection of the left thalamic projection and the left fronto-striatal fasciculus was associated with poor cognitive ToM performance. Our study is the first to reveal direct causal neuropsychological evidence for a role of the cerebellum in some but not all types of ToM, processing. It reinforces the idea that social cognition relies on a complex network functionally connected through white matter pathways that include the cerebellum. It supports evidence that the neural networks underpinning the different types of ToM can be differentiated.
心理理论（Theory of Mind，ToM）是一种社会认知技能，它使人们能够理解他人的意图、信念和欲望。心理理论可以分为情感和认知两种，有证据表明这两种过程依赖于部分不同的神经网络。小脑在社会认知中的作用尚未得到充分探索。在这项研究中，我们测试了小脑是否对认知和情感心理理论表现至关重要。我们使用基于体素的病变-症状映射（Voxel-based Lesion-symptom Mapping，VLSM）和测量对功能连接的影响，测试了外伤性脑损伤患者（n=193）和健康对照组（n=52）。首先，我们观察到小脑损伤会影响纯粹的认知心理理论处理。此外，我们发现小脑在认知心理理论中的作用存在侧化效应，即左侧小脑损伤的参与者比右侧小脑损伤的参与者表现更差。VLSM 和标准统计分析均提供了证据，表明左侧小脑的 Crus I 和 VI 小叶有助于心理理论处理。最后，我们发现左侧丘脑投射和左侧额纹状束的连接中断与认知心理理论表现差有关。我们的研究首次揭示了小脑在某些而非所有类型心理理论处理中的直接因果神经心理学证据。它强化了这样一种观点，即社会认知依赖于通过包括小脑在内的白质通路连接的复杂功能网络。它支持了这样一种观点，即不同类型的心理理论的神经网络可以区分开来。
