Golec-Staśkiewicz Karolina, Wojciechowski Jakub, Haman Maciej, Wolak Tomasz, Wysocka Joanna, Pluta Agnieszka
University of Warsaw, Faculty of Psychology, Warsaw, Poland.
World Hearing Center, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Bioimaging Research Center, Kajetany, Poland.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2024 Dec 23;19(1). doi: 10.1093/scan/nsae095.
Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to interpret others' behaviors in terms of mental states, has been extensively studied through the False-Belief Task (FBT). However, limited research exists regarding the distinction between different phases of FBT, suggesting that they are subserved by separate neural mechanisms. Further inquiry into this matter seems crucial for deepening our knowledge of the neurocognitive basis of mental-state processing. Therefore, we employed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine neural responses and functional connectivity within the core network for ToM across phases of the FBT, which was administered to 61 healthy adults during scanning. The region-of-interest analysis revealed heightened responses of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) during and increased activation of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during the outcome phase. Negative connectivity between these regions was observed during belief-formation. Unlike the TPJ, mPFC responded similarly to conditions that require belief reasoning and to control conditions that do not entail tracking mental states. Our results indicate a functional dissociation within the core network for ToM. While the TPJ is possibly engaged in coding beliefs, the mPFC shows no such specificity. These findings advance our understanding of the unique roles of the TPJ and mPFC in mental-state processing.
心理理论（ToM），即根据心理状态来解释他人行为的能力，已通过错误信念任务（FBT）得到广泛研究。然而，关于FBT不同阶段之间的区别，现有研究有限，这表明它们由不同的神经机制支持。进一步探究此事对于深化我们对心理状态加工的神经认知基础的认识似乎至关重要。因此，我们采用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来检查在扫描过程中对61名健康成年人进行FBT各阶段时，ToM核心网络内的神经反应和功能连接。感兴趣区域分析显示，在结果阶段颞顶联合区（TPJ）的反应增强，内侧前额叶皮质（mPFC）的激活增加。在信念形成过程中观察到这些区域之间的负连接。与TPJ不同，mPFC对需要信念推理的条件和不需要追踪心理状态的对照条件的反应相似。我们的结果表明ToM核心网络内存在功能分离。虽然TPJ可能参与信念编码，但mPFC没有这种特异性。这些发现推进了我们对TPJ和mPFC在心理状态加工中独特作用的理解。
