Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-06T07:29:22.725Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex impairs theory of mind learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

S. Lev-Ran ,
S.G. Shamay-Tsoory ,
A. Zangen  and
Y. Levkovitz
S. Lev-Ran
Affiliation:
Cognitive and Emotional Laboratory, Shalvata Mental Health Care Center, POB 94, Hod-Hasharon, Israel
S.G. Shamay-Tsoory
Affiliation:
Cognitive and Emotional Laboratory, Shalvata Mental Health Care Center, POB 94, Hod-Hasharon, Israel
A. Zangen
Affiliation:
Cognitive and Emotional Laboratory, Shalvata Mental Health Care Center, POB 94, Hod-Hasharon, Israel
Y. Levkovitz*
Affiliation:
Cognitive and Emotional Laboratory, Shalvata Mental Health Care Center, POB 94, Hod-Hasharon, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. Psychiatry Department, Shalvata Mental Health Center, Tel Aviv University, Hamargoa 4, POB 94, Israel. Tel.: +972 9 7478 644; fax: +972 9 7478 643. E-mail addresses: ylevk@clalit.org.il, levkovit@netvision.net.il (Y. Levkovitz).
Get access

Abstract

Imaging and lesion studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex plays a prominent role in mediating theory of mind (ToM) functioning. Particularly, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) appears to be involved in mediating ToM functioning. This study utilized slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the VMPFC in 13 healthy subjects in order to test whether normal functioning of the VMPFC is necessary for ToM functioning. We found that rTMS to the VMPFC, but not sham-rTMS, significantly disrupted ToM learning. Performance on a control task, not involving affective ToM functioning, was not significantly altered after applying rTMS to the VMPFC or sham-rTMS. In an additional experiment, rTMS to the vertex did not significantly affect ToM learning, confirming specificity of the VMPFC region. These findings indicate that the VMPFC is critical for intact ToM learning and shed further light on the concept and localization of ToM in particular and empathic functioning in general.

Keywords

Transcranial magnetic stimulationVentromedial prefrontal cortexTheory of mindLearningSocial cognitionEmpathy
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , May 2012 , pp. 285 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adolphs, R., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., Cooper, G., Damasio, A.R.A role for somatosensory cortices in the visual recognition of emotion as revealed by three-dimensional lesion mapping. J Neurosci. 2000; 20: 2683–2690.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, S., Ring, H., Moriarty, J., Schmitz, B., Costa, D., Ell, P.Recognition of mental state terms. Clinical findings in children with autism and a functional neuroimaging study of normal adults. B J Psychiatry. 1994; 165: 640–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., Anderson, S.W.Dissociation of working memory from decision making within the human prefrontal cortex. J Neurosci. 1998; 18: 428–437.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bechara, A., Tranel, D., Damasio, H.Characterization of the decision-making deficit of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions. Brain. 2000; 123: 2189–2202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brune, M.Theory of mind” in schizophrenia: a review of the literature. Schizophr Bull. 2005; 31: 21–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eslinger, P.J., Damasio, A.R.Severe disturbance of higher cognition after bilateral frontal lobe ablations: patient EVR. Neurology. 1985; 35: 1731–1741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, P.C., Happe, F., Frith, U., Baker, S.C., Dolan, R.J., Frackowiak, R.S.et al.Other minds in the brain: a functional imaging study of “theory of mind” in story comprehension. Cognition. 1995; 57: 109–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, H.L., Happe, F., Brunswick, N., Fletcher, P.C., Frith, U., Frith, C.D.Reading the mind in cartoons and stories: an fMRI study of “theory of mind” in verbal and non verbal tasks. Neuropsychologia. 2000; 38: 11–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goel, V., Grafman, J., Sadato, N., Hallett, M.Modeling other minds. Neuroreport. 1995; 6: 1741–1746.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hampton, A.N., Bossaerts, P., O’Doherty, J.P.The role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in abstract state-based inference during decision making in humans. J Neurosci. 2006; 26: 8360–8367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayward, G., Mehta, M.A., Harmer, C., Spinks, T.J., Grasby, P.M., Goodwin, G.M.Exploring the physiological effects of double-cone coil TMS over the medial frontal cortex on the anterior cingulate cortex: an H2(15)O PET study. Eur J Neurosci. 2007; 25: 2224–2233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jahanshahi, M., Rothwell, J.Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies of cognition: an emerging field. Exp Brain Res. 2000; 131: 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karafin, M.S., Tranel, D., Adolphs, R.Dominance attributions following damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. J Cogn Neurosci. 2004; 16: 1796–1804.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, J.P., Banaji, M.R., Macrae, C.N.The link between social cognition and self-referential thought in the medial prefrontal cortex. J Cogn Neurosci. 2005; 17: 1306–1315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oldfield, R.C.The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologica. 1971; 9: 97–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oliveri, M., Masimo, L., Papagno, C.Left but not right temporal involvement in opaque idiom comprehension: a repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study. J Cogn Neurosci. 2004; 16: 843–855.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Premack, D., Woodruff, G.Chimpanzee problem-solving: a test for comprehension. Science. 1978; 202: 532–535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shamay-Tsoory, S.G., Aharon-Peretz, J., Levkovitz, Y.The neuroanatomial basis of affective mentalizing in schizophrenia: comparison of patients with schizophrenia and patients with localized prefrontal lesions. Schizophr Res. 2007; 90: 274–283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shamay-Tsoory, S., Shur, S., Barcai-Goodman, L., Harari, H., Levkovitz, Y.Dissociation of cognitive from affective components of theory of mind in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res. 2007; 149: 11–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shamay-Tsoory, S.G., Tomer, R., Berger, B.D., Aharon-Peretz, J.Characterization of empathy deficits following prefrontal brain damage: the role of the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex. J Cogn Neurosci. 2003; 15: 324–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shamay-Tsoory, S.G., Tomer, R., Berger, B.D., Aharon-Peretz, J.Impaired affective “theory of mind” is associated with right ventromedial prefrontal damage. Cogn Behav Neurol. 2005; 18: 55–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stokić, D.S., McKay, W.B., Scott, L., Sherwood, A.M., Dimitrijević, M.R.Intracortical inhibition of lower limb motor-evoked potentials after paired transcranial magnetic stimulation. Exp Brain Res. 1997; 117: 437–443.Google ScholarPubMed
Terao, Y., Ugawa, Y., Hanajima, R., Machii, K., Furubayashi, T., Mochizuki, H.et al.Predominant activation of I1-waves from the leg motor area by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Brain Res. 2000; 859: 137–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vollm, B.A., Taylor, A.N., Richradson, P., Corcoran, R., Stirling, J., McKie, S.et al.Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: a functional magnetic resonance study in a nonverbal task. Neuroimage. 2006; 29: 90–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, V., Rushworth, M.A primer of magnetic stimulation as a tool for neuropsychology. Neuropsychologia. 1999; 37: 125–135.Google ScholarPubMed
Baron Cohen, S., Goodhart, F.The “seeing leads to knowing” deficit in autism: The Pratt and Bryant probe. Br J Dev Psychol. 1994; 12: 397–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.