Department of Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Psychology and Neurosciences, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany.
J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2024 Sep;131(9):1067-1078. doi: 10.1007/s00702-024-02808-9. Epub 2024 Jul 17.
Several cortical structures are involved in theory of mind (ToM), including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and the right temporo- parietal junction (rTPJ). We investigated the role of these regions in mind reading with respect to the valence of mental states. Sixty-five healthy adult participants were recruited and received transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) (1.5 mA, 20 min) with one week interval in three separate studies. The stimulation conditions were anodal tDCS over the dlPFC coupled with cathodal tDCS over the vmPFC, reversed stimulation conditions, and sham in the first study, and anodal tDCS over the vmPFC, or dlPFC, and sham stimulation, with an extracranial return electrode in the second and third study. During stimulation, participants underwent the reading mind from eyes/voice tests (RMET or RMVT) in each stimulation condition. Anodal left dlPFC/cathodal right vmPFC stimulation increased the accuracy of negative mental state attributions, anodal rTPJ decreased the accuracy of negative and neutral mental state attributions, and decreased the reaction time of positive mental state attributions. Our results imply that the neural correlates of ToM are valence-sensitive.
几种皮质结构参与了心理理论（ToM），包括背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）、腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）和右侧颞顶联合区（rTPJ）。我们研究了这些区域在阅读心理状态时与心理状态的效价有关的作用。招募了 65 名健康成年参与者，并在三个独立的研究中以一周的间隔接受了经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）（1.5 mA，20 分钟）。刺激条件是 dlPFC 上的阳极 tDCS 与 vmPFC 上的阴极 tDCS 相结合、反转刺激条件和假刺激在第一项研究中，第二项和第三项研究中是 vmPFC 或 dlPFC 上的阳极 tDCS 和假刺激，外加一个颅外返回电极。在刺激过程中，参与者在每种刺激条件下接受了眼/声阅读心理测试（RMET 或 RMVT）。左侧 dlPFC 的阳极刺激/右侧 vmPFC 的阴极刺激增加了对负性心理状态归因的准确性，右侧 rTPJ 的阳极刺激降低了对负性和中性心理状态归因的准确性，并降低了对正性心理状态归因的反应时间。我们的结果表明，ToM 的神经相关性对效价敏感。
