Hevia-Orozco Jorge, Reyes-Aguilar Azalea, Pasaye Erick H, Barrios Fernando A
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Neurobiología, Querétaro, Mexico.
Universidad Anáhuac Mayab, Escuela de Psicología, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
eNeurologicalSci. 2022 May 27;27:100407. doi: 10.1016/j.ensci.2022.100407. eCollection 2022 Jun.
During a social evaluation, the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) plays an important role according to its contribution in making inferences about the mental states of others. However, what is the neural response if rTPJ function is inhibited during a mentalizing task? In this study, participants played the Dictator Game with two confederates: one playing cooperation (C) and other playing non-cooperation (NC) role and then they were scanned during a mentalizing test. However, we inhibited rTPJ using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) after they played the game and before they were scanned. In this test, participants read negative (Neg) or positive (Pos) personal situations and then they watched confederate's pictures. Images from the TMS group were compared against controls with no TMS stimulation. After statistical comparison, we found a significantly higher activity in right and left visual association areas (BA 18) during the NCPos > NCNeg condition in the TMS group compared with the No-TMS group. Same visual association areas have been described before when participants are processing visual emotional information or when making a fast social categorization. This could reflect a neural mechanism of socio - emotional categorization that emerges after rTPJ inhibition.
在社会评估过程中，右颞顶联合区（rTPJ）因其在推断他人心理状态方面的作用而发挥着重要作用。然而，在心理化任务中，如果rTPJ功能受到抑制，神经反应会是怎样的呢？在本研究中，参与者与两名同伙玩独裁者游戏：一名同伙扮演合作（C）角色，另一名扮演非合作（NC）角色，然后在心理化测试期间对他们进行扫描。然而，在他们玩完游戏后且在扫描前，我们使用经颅磁刺激（TMS）抑制rTPJ。在该测试中，参与者阅读消极（Neg）或积极（Pos）的个人情境，然后观看同伙的图片。将TMS组的图像与未接受TMS刺激的对照组进行比较。经过统计比较，我们发现与无TMS组相比，TMS组在NCPos > NCNeg条件下，左右视觉联合区（BA 18）的活动显著更高。之前在参与者处理视觉情绪信息或进行快速社会分类时，也曾描述过相同的视觉联合区。这可能反映了rTPJ抑制后出现的社会情感分类的神经机制。
