Visualizing how one brain understands another: A PET study of theory of mind
Visualizing how one brain understands another: A PET study of theory of mind
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DOI：
10.1176/appi.ajp.160.11.1954
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发表时间：
2003-11-01
影响因子：
17.7
通讯作者：
O'Leary, DS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Calarge, C;Andreasen, NC;O'Leary, DS
目的：心理理论（TOM），或“心理化”，是指将心理状态归因于自我和他人的能力。推断人们的想法和感受是人类社会互动的一个重要方面，也是精神病学诊断和治疗的一个重要方面。作者进行了一项正电子发射断层扫描（PET）研究，通过模拟现实生活中的社会互动来检查TOM的神经基质。方法：13名健康志愿者在执行实验任务和对照任务时接受[O-15]H2O PET。在实验任务中，他们创造了一个“故事”，关于他们想象在公园长凳上遇到的陌生人的精神状态。在控制任务中，他们大声朗读一个不需要精神状态归因的故事。结果：TOM任务激活了一个广泛的神经网络，包括额叶内侧皮层、额叶上皮层、脾前扣带和脾后扣带以及颞前极；这些激活大多局限于左半球。此外，最大的激活是在对侧右小脑以及前蚓部。结论：基于语言的TOM任务激活了分布的大脑区域，这些区域对表现自我和他人的精神状态、检索个人经历的记忆以及协调和监控任务的整体表现非常重要。内侧额叶皮层的激活重复了之前TOM研究的发现，而小脑的激活强化了小脑在人脑中执行认知功能的证据。
Objective: Theory of mind (TOM), or "mentalizing," refers to the ability to attribute mental states to self and others. inferring what people are thinking and feeling is an important aspect of human social interaction, and it is also an important aspect of both psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. The authors conducted a positron emission tomography (PET) study to examine the neural substrates of TOM, using a task that mimics real-life social interaction.Method: Thirteen healthy volunteers underwent [O-15]H2O PET while performing an experimental task and a control task. During the experimental task they created a "story" about the mental state of a stranger whom they imagined encountering on a park bench. During the control task, they read aloud a story requiring no mental state attribution.Results: The TOM task activated an extensive neural network that included the medial frontal cortex, the superior frontal cortex, the anterior and retrosplenial cingulate, and the anterior temporal pole; most of these activations were limited to the left hemisphere. In addition, the largest activation was in the contralateral right cerebellum, as well as the anterior vermis.Conclusions: A language-based TOM task activated distributed brain regions that are important for representing mental states of the self and others, retrieving memory of personal experiences, and coordinating and monitoring the overall performance of the task. The activations in the medial frontal cortex replicate findings in previous TOM studies, while the activations in the cerebellum reinforce the growing evidence that the cerebellum performs cognitive functions in the human brain.