TY - JOUR
T1 - A role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in self-generated episodic social cognition
AU - Konu, Delali
AU - Turnbull, Adam
AU - Karapanagiotidis, Theodoros
AU - Wang, Hao Ting
AU - Brown, Lydia Rebecca
AU - Jefferies, Elizabeth
AU - Smallwood, Jonathan
N1 - ©2020 The Author(s).
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - The human mind is equally fluent in thoughts that involve self-generated mental content as it is with information in the immediate environment. Previous research has shown that neural systems linked to executive control (i.e. the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) are recruited when perceptual and self-generated thoughts are balanced in line with the demands imposed by the external world. Contemporary theories (Smallwood and Schooler, 2015) assume that differentiable processes are important for self-generated mental content than for its regulation. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with multidimensional experience sampling to address this possibility. We used a task with minimal demands to maximise our power at identifying correlates of self-generated states. Principal component analysis showed consistent patterns of self-generated thought when participants performed the task in either the lab or in the scanner (ICC ranged from 0.68 to 0.86). In a whole brain analyses we found that neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) increases when participants are engaged in experiences which emphasise episodic and socio-cognitive features. Our study suggests that neural activity in the vMPFC is linked to patterns of ongoing thought, particularly those with episodic or social features.
AB - The human mind is equally fluent in thoughts that involve self-generated mental content as it is with information in the immediate environment. Previous research has shown that neural systems linked to executive control (i.e. the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) are recruited when perceptual and self-generated thoughts are balanced in line with the demands imposed by the external world. Contemporary theories (Smallwood and Schooler, 2015) assume that differentiable processes are important for self-generated mental content than for its regulation. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with multidimensional experience sampling to address this possibility. We used a task with minimal demands to maximise our power at identifying correlates of self-generated states. Principal component analysis showed consistent patterns of self-generated thought when participants performed the task in either the lab or in the scanner (ICC ranged from 0.68 to 0.86). In a whole brain analyses we found that neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) increases when participants are engaged in experiences which emphasise episodic and socio-cognitive features. Our study suggests that neural activity in the vMPFC is linked to patterns of ongoing thought, particularly those with episodic or social features.
KW - Memory
KW - Ongoing thought
KW - Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085925692&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116977
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116977
M3 - Article
C2 - 32450251
AN - SCOPUS:85085925692
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 218
JO - Neuroimage
JF - Neuroimage
M1 - 116977
ER -