Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Research Articles

The date/delay effect in intertemporal choice: A combined fMRI and eye-tracking study.

Temporal discounting, the tendency to devalue future rewards as a function of delay until receipt, is influenced by time framing. Specifically, discount rates are shallower when the time at which the reward is received is presented as a date (date condition; e.g., June 8, 2023) rather than in delay units (delay condition; e.g., 30 days), which is commonly referred to as the date/delay effect. However, the cognitive and neural mechanisms of this effect are not well understood. Here, we examined the date/delay effect by analysing combined fMRI and eye-tracking data of N = 31 participants completing a temporal discounting task in both a delay and a date condition. The results confirmed the date/delay effect and revealed that the date condition led to higher fixation durations on time attributes and to higher activity in precuneus/PCC and angular gyrus, that is, areas previously associated with episodic thinking. Additionally, participants made more comparative eye movements in the date compared to the delay condition. A lower date/delay effect was associated with higher prefrontal activity in the date > delay contrast, suggesting that higher control or arithmetic operations may reduce the date/delay effect. Our findings are in line with hypotheses positing that the date condition is associated with differential time estimation and the use of more comparative as opposed to integrative choice strategies. Specifically, higher activity in memory-related brain areas suggests that the date condition leads to higher perceived proximity of delayed rewards, while higher frontal activity (middle/superior frontal gyrus, posterior medial frontal cortex, cingulate) in participants with a lower date/delay effect suggests that the effect is particularly pronounced in participants avoiding complex arithmetic operations in the date condition.

Common and distinct BOLD correlates of Simon and flanker conflicts which can(not) be reduced to time-on-task effects.

The ability to identify and resolve conflicts between standard, well-trained behaviors and behaviors required by the current context is an essential feature of cognitive control. To date, no consensus has been reached on the brain mechanisms involved in exerting such control: while some studies identified diverse patterns of activity across different conflicts, other studies reported common resources across conflict tasks or even across simple tasks devoid of the conflict component. The latter reports attributed the entire activity observed in the presence of conflict to longer time spent on the task (i.e., to the so-called time-on-task effects). Here, we used an extended Multi-Source Interference Task (MSIT) which combines Simon and flanker types of interference to determine shared and conflict-specific mechanisms of conflict resolution in fMRI and their separability from the time-on-task effects. Large portions of the activity in the dorsal attention network and decreases of activity in the default mode network were shared across the tasks and scaled in parallel with increasing reaction times. Importantly, the activity in the sensory and sensorimotor cortices, as well as in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) - a key region implicated in conflict processing - could not be exhaustively explained by the time-on-task effects.

Neuromodulation of choice-induced preference changes: the tDCS study of cognitive dissonance.

Difficult choices between two equally attractive options result in a cognitive discrepancy between dissonant cognitions such as preferences and actions often followed by a sense of psychological discomfort known as cognitive dissonance. It can lead to changes in the desirability of options: the chosen option becomes more desirable, whereas the rejected option is devalued. Despite the ample experimental evidence to show this effect, the neural mechanisms and timing of such choice-induced preference changes are not fully understood. In this study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the activity of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC), which has been associated with conflict monitoring and choice-induced preference changes in neuroimaging studies. Prior to a revised version of Brehm's free-choice paradigm, participants in two experiments underwent cathodal (inhibitory) or anodal (excitatory) tDCS of the pMFC compared to sham (placebo) stimulation prior to the choice phase. Our results showed that cathodal tDCS significantly decreased the choice-induced preference change relative to a sham, but only in direct comparisons of rejected options. No significant effect of anodal tDCS in comparison with sham was observed. This study replicates the general behavioral effect of cognitive dissonance and provide partial support for the theory of the pMFC contribution to choice-related cognitive dissonance and subsequent preference changes, with possible limitations of an under-sampling for the obtained effect size and an asymmetry in the inhibitory-excitatory effects of non-invasive tDCS.

The Sporadic Early‐Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Signature of Regional Atrophy

AbstractBackgroundIn EOAD, the localization of neurodegeneration is often more prominent in posterior lateral temporal, lateral and medial parietal, frontal, or occipital cortex relative to the medial and ventral temporal cortical localization of typical LOAD. Convergently, neuropathological investigations have identified a “hippocampal‐sparing” form of AD that is often present in younger patients. For these reasons, imaging biomarkers of neurodegeneration in EOAD, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measures of atrophy, likely need to be different than those of neurodegeneration in typical LOAD. Although prior neuroimaging work has advanced our understanding of anatomical abnormalities in EOAD, these studies have included small samples, most composed of amnestic EOAD dementia and none focused on developing an MRI biomarker specific to EOAD. Such a disease‐signature MRI biomarker has been established and validated in LOAD dementia and has proven to be powerful in predicting progressive decline in people with MCI or who were cognitively unimpaired and in predicting molecular biomarker status. An a priori‐defined regional atrophy signature may also be helpful in constraining the analysis of MRI data in studies of putative disease‐modifying therapies.MethodLEADS is an observational study which includes annual MRI. In this analysis, we used FreeSurfer to define the sporadic EOAD atrophy signature in a small sample of MGH EOAD patients, and investigated its reproducibility in LEADS, as well as the magnitude of atrophy and its relationship to clinical measures.ResultThe EOAD signature is robustly reproducible across the two independent patient cohorts, with prominent atrophy in caudal lateral temporal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and posterior cingulate and precuneus cortex, with relative sparing of medial temporal lobe structures. Comparing patients to controls, Cohen’s d effect sizes within various regions ranged from 0.99 to 1.98.ConclusionThis study demonstrates the specific cortical regions with most prominent atrophy in patients with sporadic EOAD; this signature of regional atrophy will be used to examine longitudinal change.

Neuromodulation of the Left Inferior Frontal Cortex Affects Social Monitoring during Motor Interactions.

Motor interactions require observing and monitoring a partner's performance as the interaction unfolds. Studies in monkeys suggest that this form of social monitoring might be mediated by the activity of the ventral premotor cortex (vPMc), a critical brain region in action observation and motor planning. Our previous fMRI studies in humans showed that the left vPMc is indeed recruited during social monitoring, but its causal role is unexplored. In three experiments, we applied online anodal or cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left lateral frontal cortex during a music-like interactive task to test the hypothesis that neuromodulation of the left vPMc affects participants' performance when a partner violates the agent's expectations. Participants played short musical sequences together with a virtual partner by playing one note each in turn-taking. In 50% of the trials, the partner violated the participant's expectations by generating the correct note through an unexpected movement. During sham stimulation, the partner's unexpected behavior led to a slowdown in the participant's performance (observation-induced posterror slowing). A significant interaction with the stimulation type showed that cathodal and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation induced modulation of the observation-induced posterror slowing in opposite directions by reducing or enhancing it, respectively. Cathodal stimulation significantly reduced the effect compared to sham stimulation. No effect of neuromodulation was found when the partner behaved as expected or when the observed violation occurred within a context that was perceptually matched but noninteractive in nature. These results provide evidence for the critical causal role that the left vPMc might play in social monitoring during motor interactions, possibly through the interplay with other brain regions in the posterior medial frontal cortex.

Aberrant Effective Connectivity During Eye Gaze Processing Is Linked to Social Functioning and Symptoms in Schizophrenia

BackgroundPatients with schizophrenia show abnormal gaze processing, which is associated with social dysfunction. These abnormalities are related to aberrant connectivity among brain regions that are associated with visual processing, social cognition, and cognitive control. In this study, we investigated 1) how effective connectivity during gaze processing is disrupted in schizophrenia and 2) how this may contribute to social dysfunction and clinical symptoms. MethodsThirty-nine patients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder (SZ) and 33 healthy control participants completed an eye gaze processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants viewed faces with different gaze angles and performed explicit and implicit gaze processing. Four brain regions—the secondary visual cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus, inferior parietal lobule, and posterior medial frontal cortex—were identified as nodes for dynamic causal modeling analysis. ResultsBoth the SZ and healthy control groups showed similar model structures for general gaze processing. Explicit gaze discrimination led to changes in effective connectivity, including stronger excitatory, bottom-up connections from the secondary visual cortex to the posterior superior temporal sulcus and inferior parietal lobule and inhibitory, top-down connections from the posterior medial frontal cortex to the secondary visual cortex. Group differences in top-down modulation from the posterior medial frontal cortex to the posterior superior temporal sulcus and inferior parietal lobule were noted, such that these inhibitory connections were attenuated in the healthy control group but further strengthened in the SZ group. Connectivity was associated with social dysfunction and symptom severity. ConclusionsThe SZ group showed notably stronger top-down inhibition during explicit gaze discrimination, which was associated with more social dysfunction but less severe symptoms among patients. These findings help pinpoint neural mechanisms of aberrant gaze processing and may serve as future targets for interventions that combine neuromodulation with social cognitive training.

A Common Neural Account for Social and Nonsocial Decisions.

To date, social and nonsocial decisions have been studied largely in isolation. Consequently, the extent to which social and nonsocial forms of decision uncertainty are integrated using shared neurocomputational resources remains elusive. Here, we address this question using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy human participants (young adults of both sexes) and a task in which decision evidence in social and nonsocial contexts varies along comparable scales. First, we identify time-resolved build-up of activity in the EEG, akin to a process of evidence accumulation (EA), across both contexts. We then use the endogenous trial-by-trial variability in the slopes of these accumulating signals to construct parametric fMRI predictors. We show that a region of the posterior-medial frontal cortex (pMFC) uniquely explains trial-wise variability in the process of evidence accumulation in both social and nonsocial contexts. We further demonstrate a task-dependent coupling between the pMFC and regions of the human valuation system in dorso-medial and ventro-medial prefrontal cortex across both contexts. Finally, we report domain-specific representations in regions known to encode the early decision evidence for each context. These results are suggestive of a domain-general decision-making architecture, whereupon domain-specific information is likely converted into a "common currency" in medial prefrontal cortex and accumulated for the decision in the pMFC.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Little work has directly compared social-versus-nonsocial decisions to investigate whether they share common neurocomputational origins. Here, using combined electroencephalography (EEG)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and computational modeling, we offer a detailed spatiotemporal account of the neural underpinnings of social and nonsocial decisions. Specifically, we identify a comparable mechanism of temporal evidence integration driving both decisions and localize this integration process in posterior-medial frontal cortex (pMFC). We further demonstrate task-dependent coupling between the pMFC and regions of the human valuation system across both contexts. Finally, we report domain-specific representations in regions encoding the early, domain-specific, decision evidence. These results suggest a domain-general decision-making architecture, whereupon domain-specific information is converted into a common representation in the valuation system and integrated for the decision in the pMFC.

Neural correlates of affective task switching and asymmetric affective task switching costs.

The control of emotions is of potentially great clinical relevance. Accordingly, there has been increasing interest in understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying the ability to switch efficiently between the processing of affective and non-affective information. Reports of asymmetrically increased switch costs when switching toward the more salient emotion task indicate specific demands in the flexible control of emotion. The neural mechanisms underlying affective task switching, however, are so far not fully understood. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) (N = 57), we observed that affective task switching was accompanied by increased activity in domain-general fronto-parietal control systems. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the posterior medial frontal and anterolateral prefrontal cortex was directly related to affective switch costs, indicating that these regions play a particular role in individual differences in (affective) task-switching ability. Asymmetric switch costs were associated with increased activity in the right inferior frontal and dorsal anterior medial prefrontal cortex, two brain regions critical for response inhibition. This suggests that asymmetric switch costs might-to a great extent-reflect higher demands on inhibitory control of the dominant emotion task. These results contribute to a refined understanding of brain systems for the flexible control of emotions and thereby identify valuable target systems for future clinical research.

Medial Frontal Cortex GABA Concentrations in Psychosis Spectrum and Mood Disorders: A Meta-analysis of Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Studies

BackgroundAbnormalities of GABAergic (gamma-aminobutyric acidergic) systems may play a role in schizophrenia and mood disorders. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows for noninvasive in vivo quantification of GABA; however, studies of GABA in schizophrenia have yielded inconsistent findings. This may stem from grouping together disparate voxels from functionally heterogeneous regions. MethodsWe searched PubMed for magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies of GABA in the medial frontal cortex (MFC) in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression and in individuals meeting criteria for ultra-high risk for psychosis. Voxel placements were classified as rostral-, rostral-mid-, mid-, or posterior MFC, and meta-analyses were conducted for each group for each subregion. ResultsOf 341 screened articles, 23 studies of schizophrenia, 6 studies of bipolar disorder, 20 studies of depression, and 7 studies of ultra-high risk met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis revealed lower mid- (standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.28, 95% CI, −0.48 to −0.07, p < .01) and posterior (SMD = −0.29, 95% CI, −0.49 to −0.09, p < .01) MFC GABA in schizophrenia and increased rostral MFC GABA in bipolar disorder (SMD = 0.76, 95% CI, 0.25 to –1.25, p < .01). In depression, reduced rostral MFC GABA (SMD = −0.36, 95% CI, −0.64 to −0.08, p = .01) did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. We found no evidence for GABA differences in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis. ConclusionsWhile limited by small numbers of published studies, these results substantiate the relevance of GABA in the pathophysiology of psychosis spectrum and mood disorders and underline the importance of voxel placement.

Enhanced endogenous oxytocin signaling in the brain modulates neural responses to social misalignment and promotes conformity in humans: A multi-locus genetic profile approach

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is known to promote social conformity. However, the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlying OT-induced conformity remain unclear. We aimed to address this gap by examining how genetic variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is linked with behavioral conformity and its underlying neural systems. Specifically, we utilized the genotype-tissue expression database (GTEx) to create a novel multi-locus genetic profile score (MPS) that reflects the level of OXTR expression in the human brain. A total of 194 participants (Neuroimaging N = 50, Behavioral N = 144) performed a novel conformity task in which they viewed a series of word pairs depicting various moral values and virtues widely recognized in the United States. In each trial, participants indicated the relative importance of these words and subsequently learned about the majority opinion. Participants later rated the same word pairs a second time. Changes in participants’ ratings between the first and second sessions were measured and analyzed with respect to social feedback, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals, and OXTR MPS. We found that participants adjusted their ratings in accordance with the majority opinions. Social misalignment between self and others activated brain areas such as the striatum and the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC). However, unlike most findings from previous studies, activation in the pMFC during the inconsistent social feedback negatively, rather than positively, predicted behavioral conformity. Notably, those with higher OXTR MPS had reduced pMFC activation in the face of social misalignment, which led to greater conformity. Our findings suggest that OT may promote conformity by dampening the conflict-related signals in the pMFC. They also show that OXTR MPS may be useful for studying the effect of genes on highly complex human social traits, such as conformity.

This is not who you are: The posterior cerebellum and stereotype-inconsistent action sequences

Recent research has indicated that the posterior cerebellum plays a crucial role in social cognition by encoding sequences of social actions. This study investigates its role in learning sequences of stereotype-implying actions by group members. We presented a set of five sentences that each described a group member who performed either stereotype-consistent or inconsistent actions. Participants were instructed to memorize the temporal order of the sentences and infer a common stereotype of the group. As a comparison, we included control conditions where participants had to memorize sequences of nonsocial consistent events or simply read stereotype-consistent sentences without memorizing their order. The results showed that the posterior cerebellum was strongly activated when participants were memorizing the order of the social actions, as opposed to simply reading these social actions. More importantly, when the social actions were inconsistent as opposed to consistent with the stereotype of the group, the posterior cerebellum was activated more strongly. This activation occurred together with cortical recruitment of the mentalizing network involving the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) during social actions, and additionally the conflict monitoring network involving the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior medial frontal cortex (pmFC) during stereotype-inconsistent actions. These findings suggest that the cerebellum supports not only learning of low-level action sequences, but also of their high-level social implications.

Structural disconnection of the posterior medial frontal cortex reduces speech error monitoring

Optimal performance in any task relies on the ability to detect and correct errors. The anterior cingulate cortex and the broader posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) are active during error processing. However, it is unclear whether damage to the pMFC impairs error monitoring. We hypothesized that successful error monitoring critically relies on connections between the pMFC and broader cortical networks involved in executive functions and the task being monitored. We tested this hypothesis in the context of speech error monitoring in people with post-stroke aphasia. Diffusion weighted images were collected in 51 adults with chronic left-hemisphere stroke and 37 age-matched control participants. Whole-brain connectomes were derived using constrained spherical deconvolution and anatomically-constrained probabilistic tractography. Support vector regressions identified white matter connections in which lost integrity in stroke survivors related to reduced error detection during confrontation naming. Lesioned connections to the bilateral pMFC were related to reduce error monitoring, including many connections to regions associated with speech production and executive function. We conclude that connections to the pMFC support error monitoring. Error monitoring in speech production is supported by the structural connectivity between the pMFC and regions involved in speech production, comprehension, and executive function. Interactions between pMFC and other task-relevant processors may similarly be critical for error monitoring in other task contexts.

More by stick than by carrot: A reinforcement learning style rooted in the medial frontal cortex in anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by a relentless pursuit of thinness, despite serious implications for health and social relations. In a previous study wielding the power of computational psychiatry, we found alterations in learning from negative feedback and in neural activity in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in young acutely underweight AN patients (acAN). Here we ask whether these abnormalities are merely a state-related consequence of the illness or whether they might constitute a trait marker predisposing individuals to AN. To address this question, we employed the same reinforcement learning paradigm during fMRI with 31 female former AN patients after complete weight-recovery (recAN) and 31 age-matched healthy volunteers (15-28 years). Participants performed a decision task that required adaptation to changing reward contingencies. Data were analyzed within a hierarchical Gaussian filter model, which captures interindividual variability in feedback learning and decision-making under uncertainty. Similar to acute patients, individuals recovered from AN appear to emphasize negative over positive feedback when updating expectations regarding changing reward-punishment contingencies (difference in learning rate between punished and rewarded trials was increased in recAN: p = .006, d = .70. This behavioral pattern was mirrored in hyperactivation of the pMFC following negative feedback (FWE p < .001). Because the previously observed alterations in acANs are also evident after recovery and do not correlate with state variables like weight, altered feedback learning might be a trait marker of AN. The neural underpinnings of these alterations may lie in the pMFC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Regulates Sympathy: A TMS Study

Harm to some elicits greater sympathy than harm to others. Here, we examine the role of posterior medial frontal cortex (PMFC) in regulating sympathy, and explore the potential role of PMFC in the related phenomena of mentalizing and representing others as connected with oneself. We down-regulated either PMFC or a control region (middle temporal visual area), then assessed feelings of sympathy for and self-other overlap with two characters described as having suffered physical harm, and who were framed as adversarial or affiliative, respectively. We also measured mentalizing performance with regard to inferring the cognitive and affective states of the adversarial character. As hypothesized, down-regulating PMFC increased sympathy for both characters. Whereas we had predicted that down-regulating PMFC would decrease mentalizing ability given the postulated role of PMFC in the mentalizing network, participants in the PMFC down-regulation condition evinced greater second-order cognitive inference ability relative to controls. We observed no effect of the TMS manipulation on self-other overlap, although sympathy and self-other overlap were positively correlated. These findings are discussed as they may inform understanding of the functional role(s) of PMFC in regulating responses broadly linked with empathy.

Modulation of Sustained Attention by Theta-tACS over the Lateral and Medial Frontal Cortices.

Theta oscillations over the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) play vital roles in sustained attention. Specifically, pMFC power and pMFC-LPFC synchronization correlate with cognitive control in sustained-attention-related tasks, but the causal relationships remain unknown. In the present study, we first analyzed the correlation between EEG theta oscillations (characterized by time-frequency power and phase-based connectivity) and the level of sustained attention (Experiment 1) and then utilized transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to modulate theta oscillations and in turn observed its effects on sustained attention (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, two time-frequency regions of interest (ROIs) were determined, in which high/low time-frequency power and high/low phase-based connectivity corresponded to high/low-level sustained attention. In Experiment 2, time-frequency power and phase-based connectivity of theta oscillations were compared between the sham and tACS groups within the time-frequency ROIs determined in Experiment 1. Results showed that phase-based connectivity between pMFC and LPFC significantly decreased in the tACS group compared with the sham group during the first five minutes of the poststimulation period. Moreover, a marginal trend existed that sustained attention was downregulated by tACS in the same time interval, suggesting that theta phase synchronization between pMFC and LPFC may play a causal role in sustained attention.

MyCOVIDRisk app: development and utilisation of a COVID-19 risk assessment and mitigation application

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> To date, social and non-social decisions have been studied in isolation. Consequently, the extent to which social and non-social forms of decision uncertainty are integrated using shared neurocomputational resources...

Testing the reinforcement learning hypothesis of social conformity.

Our preferences are influenced by the opinions of others. The past human neuroimaging studies on social conformity have identified a network of brain regions related to social conformity that includes the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC), anterior insula, and striatum. Since these brain regions are also known to play important roles in reinforcement learning (i.e., processing prediction error), it was previously hypothesized that social conformity and reinforcement learning have a common neural mechanism. However, although this view is currently widely accepted, these two processes have never been directly compared; therefore, the extent to which they shared a common neural mechanism had remained unclear. This study aimed to formally test the hypothesis. The same group of participants (n = 25) performed social conformity and reinforcement learning tasks inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Univariate fMRI data analyses revealed activation overlaps in the pMFC and bilateral insula between social conflict and unsigned prediction error and in the striatum between social conflict and signed prediction error. We further conducted multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) for more direct evidence of a shared neural mechanism. MVPA did not reveal any evidence to support the hypothesis in any of these regions but found that activation patterns between social conflict and prediction error in these regions were largely distinct. Taken together, the present study provides no clear evidence of a common neural mechanism between social conformity and reinforcement learning.

Dynamic causal modeling of eye gaze processing in schizophrenia

BackgroundAbnormal eye gaze perception is related to symptoms and social functioning in schizophrenia. However, little is known about the brain network mechanisms underlying these abnormalities. Here, we employed dynamic causal modeling (DCM) of fMRI data to discover aberrant effective connectivity within networks associated with eye gaze processing in schizophrenia. MethodsTwenty-seven patients (schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, SZ) and 22 healthy controls (HC) completed an eye gaze processing task during fMRI. Participants viewed faces with different gaze angles and performed explicit gaze discrimination (Gaze: “Looking at you?” yes/no) or implicit gaze processing (Gender: “male or female?”). Four brain regions, the secondary visual cortex (Vis), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) were identified as nodes for subsequent DCM analysis. ResultsSZ and HC showed similar generative model structure, but SZ showed altered connectivity for specific self-connections, inter-regional connections during all gaze processing (reduced excitatory bottom-up and enhanced inhibitory top-down connections), and modulation by explicit gaze discrimination (increased frontal inhibition of visual cortex). Altered effective connectivity was significantly associated with poorer social cognition and functioning. ConclusionsGeneral gaze processing in SZ is associated with distributed cortical dysfunctions and bidirectional connectivity between regions, while explicit gaze discrimination involves predominantly top-down abnormalities in the visual system. These results suggest plausible neural mechanisms underpinning gaze processing deficits and may serve as bio-markers for intervention.

Posterior medial frontal cortex and threat-enhanced religious belief: a replication and extension.

Research indicates that the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) functions as a ‘neural alarm’ complex broadly involved in registering threats and helping to muster relevant responses. Holbrook and colleagues investigated whether pMFC similarly mediates ideological threat responses, finding that downregulating pMFC via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) caused (i) less avowed religious belief despite being reminded of death and (ii) less group bias despite encountering a sharp critique of the national in-group. While suggestive, these findings were limited by the absence of a non-threat comparison condition and reliance on sham rather than control TMS. Here, in a pre-registered replication and extension, we downregulated pMFC or a control region (MT/V5) and then primed participants with either a reminder of death or a threat-neutral topic. As mentioned previously, participants reminded of death reported less religious belief when pMFC was downregulated. No such effect of pMFC downregulation was observed in the neutral condition, consistent with construing pMFC as monitoring for salient threats (e.g. death) and helping to recruit ideological responses (e.g. enhanced religious belief). However, no effect of downregulating pMFC on group bias was observed, possibly due to reliance on a collegiate in-group framing rather than a national framing as in the prior study.

Self-centered or other-directed: Neural correlates of performance monitoring are dependent on psychopathic traits and social context

Performing in a social context can result in negative feelings when our actions harm another person, but it can also lead to positive feelings when observing an opponent fail. The extent to which individuals scoring high on psychopathic traits, often characterized as self-centered with reduced concern for others' welfare, are sensitive to own and others' success and failure is yet unknown. However, knowledge about these processes is crucial for comprehending how these traits are involved in understanding ourselves and others during social interactions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, healthy females scoring low or high on psychopathic traits performed a cannon-shooting game in non-social, cooperative, and competitive contexts. We hypothesized group differences regarding: (1) monitoring of own actions in a non-social context (errors that only negatively affect oneself) versus cooperative context (errors that also harm others), (2) successfully performing with either positive (shared gain) or negative consequences (selfish gain) for the co-player, and (3) observing other's performance leading to shared or selfish gain for oneself. Decreased performance-monitoring-related activations were found in posterior medial frontal cortex for females scoring high on psychopathic traits in the social versus non-social context. When observing others, striatal activations were stronger for selfish gains for high scorers and for shared gains for low scorers. The current outcomes demonstrate that performance-monitoring and reward-related brain activations importantly depend on the interplay between psychopathic traits and social context. We propose that these neural mechanisms may underlie the more self-centered behavior of individuals scoring high on psychopathic traits. As such, the current findings may open up new research avenues, which could advance our understanding of how personality traits impact performance monitoring in a wide variety of social contexts and could possibly lead to the development of interventions aimed at normalizing reduced concern for others.