The Neural Representation of Multiple False Beliefs

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The Neural Representation of Multiple False Beliefs Frank Van Overwalle1* and Ceylan Ozdem1 1 Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Neuroimaging research has demonstrated that mentalizing about false beliefs held by other people recruits two key mentalizing areas: the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). To investigate the role of these areas in the underlying mechanisms of switching to another agent’s perspective and computing the agent’s false belief, we investigated belief states attributed to two rather than a single agent. Participants saw animated spatial belief stories with two smurfs holding similar or mixed (true or false) beliefs. At the end of each trial, they were requested to judge the task from the perspective of the self or one smurf. The results revealed that during the initial story phase, there was increased activation in the ventral mPFC when inferring two or one false beliefs. This suggests that the vmPFC is involved in the computation of false beliefs. The same pattern of results was found in the question phase when taking a self-perspective, suggesting that the self is the default perspective taken during the computation of beliefs. In addition, when switching to a smurf’s perspective, mixed false-true beliefs as opposed to shared false or shared true beliefs increased activation in the mPFC and inferior parietal lobule including the left TPJ. This suggests that the TPJ is involved in switching away from one’s own perspective and attributing a false belief to a specific other agent, while the mPFC further aids in representing false beliefs. Keywords: Mentalizing, false belief, mPFC, fMRI, Multiple observers Conference: 12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience, Gent, Belgium, 22 May - 22 May, 2017. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Cognition and Behavior Citation: Van Overwalle F and Ozdem C (2019). The Neural Representation of Multiple False Beliefs. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2017.94.00119 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 07 Mar 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Frank Van Overwalle, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, Frank.VanOverwalle@vub.ac.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Frank Van Overwalle Ceylan Ozdem Google Frank Van Overwalle Ceylan Ozdem Google Scholar Frank Van Overwalle Ceylan Ozdem PubMed Frank Van Overwalle Ceylan Ozdem Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.