Deficits in Social Knowledge Following Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

Mah, Linda

doi:10.1176/appi.neuropsych.17.1.66

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…In the context of a PFC lesion, over-learned heuristics can still be preserved and may become more salient (leading to an increase in professed fundamentalist beliefs), while more diverse, complex and deliberated belief representations become less accessible due to vmPFC damage. In addition, patients withlesions to the vmPFC frequently show impairments in social and reward valuation (Mah, Arnold, & Grafman, 2005; Moretti, Dragone, & di Pellegrino, 2009), and this might lead to changes in their social judgments. For example, patients with vmPFC lesions are more prone to judge extreme (and potentially fundamentalist) behaviors as more acceptable (Cristofori, Viola, et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological and cognitive underpinnings of religious fundamentalism

et al. 2017

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Beliefs profoundly affect people's lives, but their cognitive and neural pathways are poorly understood. Although previous research has identified the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as critical to representing religious beliefs, the means by which vmPFC enables religious belief is uncertain. We hypothesized that the vmPFC represents diverse religious beliefs and that a vmPFC lesion would be associated with religious fundamentalism, or the narrowing ofreligious beliefs. To test this prediction, we assessed religious adherence with a widely-used religious fundamentalism scale in a large sample of 119 patients with penetrating traumatic brain injury (pTBI). If the vmPFC is crucial to modulating diverse personal religious beliefs, we predicted that pTBI patients with lesions to the vmPFC would exhibit greater fundamentalism, and that this would be modulated by cognitive flexibility and trait openness. Instead, we found that participants with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) lesions have fundamentalist beliefs similar to patients with vmPFC lesions and that the effect of a dlPFC lesion on fundamentalism was significantly mediated by decreased cognitive flexibility and openness. These findings indicate that cognitive flexibility and openness are necessary for flexible and adaptive religious commitment, and that such diversity of religious thought is dependent on dlPFC functionality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological and cognitive underpinnings of religious fundamentalism

et al. 2017

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“…While the hippocampus is extensively connected with surrounding MTL structures, including the entorhinal, the perirhinal, and the parahippocampal cortices, we focus here on the connectivity between hippocampus and brain structures that are traditionally thought to be involved in executive function and social interactions, such as the PFC, the amygdala, and the cingulate (Simons and Spiers, 2003; Wood and Grafman, 2003). Both neuropsychological patient and functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the involvement of the PFC in complex abilities that require flexible cognition, such as moral reasoning, social conduct, experiencing and recognition of social emotions, assigning affective value to mental representations, and social and emotional decision-making (e.g., Eslinger and Damasio, 1985; Damasio et al, 1990, 1991; Bechara et al, 1994, 1997; Anderson et al, 1999; Greene et al, 2001; Gusnard et al, 2001; Berthoz et al, 2002; Gregory et al, 2002; Shuren and Grafman, 2002; Stuss and Levine, 2002; Bar-On et al, 2003; Beer et al, 2003; Frith and Frith, 2003; Sabbagh, 2004; Mah et al, 2005; Moll et al, 2005; Hynes et al, 2006; D’Argembeau et al, 2008). The hippocampus has extensive connections with the PFC (Simons and Spiers, 2003; Wood and Grafman, 2003), including direct reciprocal connections between the medial PFC and the MTL (Simons and Spiers, 2003), reciprocal connections between the PFC and the perirhinal cortex (Lavenex and Amaral, 2000), unidirectional projections from the hippocampus to the vmPFC (Rosene and Van Hoesen, 1977; Barbas and Blatt, 1995), and bidirectional connections from the subiculum and neocortical medial temporal regions to the vmPFC (Goldman-Rakic et al, 1984; Barbas et al, 1999).…”

Section: The Hippocampus Is Anatomically Connected To Brain Regions Kmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the hippocampus in flexible cognition and social behavior

Rubin

Watson

Duff

et al. 2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

371

208

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Successful behavior requires actively acquiring and representing information about the environment and people, and manipulating and using those acquired representations flexibly to optimally act in and on the world. The frontal lobes have figured prominently in most accounts of flexible or goal-directed behavior, as evidenced by often-reported behavioral inflexibility in individuals with frontal lobe dysfunction. Here, we propose that the hippocampus also plays a critical role by forming and reconstructing relational memory representations that underlie flexible cognition and social behavior. There is mounting evidence that damage to the hippocampus can produce inflexible and maladaptive behavior when such behavior places high demands on the generation, recombination, and flexible use of information. This is seen in abilities as diverse as memory, navigation, exploration, imagination, creativity, decision-making, character judgments, establishing and maintaining social bonds, empathy, social discourse, and language use. Thus, the hippocampus, together with its extensive interconnections with other neural systems, supports the flexible use of information in general. Further, we suggest that this understanding has important clinical implications. Hippocampal abnormalities can produce profound deficits in real-world situations, which typically place high demands on the flexible use of information, but are not always obvious on diagnostic tools tuned to frontal lobe function. This review documents the role of the hippocampus in supporting flexible representations and aims to expand our understanding of the dynamic networks that operate as we move through and create meaning of our world.

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“…Thus, the VHIS was vital in establishing improvements in the assessment of those with frontal lobe syndrome. It was found that there may be subgroups of patients with specific social deficits even within groups whose lesion encompasses a larger region, e.g., vmPFC lesions (Sanfey et al, 2003; Goel et al, 2004; Mah et al, 2004, 2005). Administration of the Everyday Problem Solving Inventory (EPSI) suggested that some patients with prefrontal lobe lesions may have impaired social judgment that can be directly revealed only through the use of such relatively novel neuropsychological tests (Dimitrov et al, 1996).…”

Section: Selected Findings From the Vhismentioning

confidence: 99%

“Studying Injured Minds” – The Vietnam Head Injury Study and 40 Years of Brain Injury Research

Raymont¹,

Salazar²,

Krueger³

et al. 2011

Front. Neur.

124

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The study of those who have sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBI) during military conflicts has greatly facilitated research in the fields of neuropsychology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, neurology, and neuroimaging. The Vietnam Head Injury Study (VHIS) is a prospective, long-term follow-up study of a cohort of 1,221 Vietnam veterans with mostly penetrating brain injuries, which has stretched over more than 40 years. The scope of this study, both in terms of the types of injury and fields of examination, has been extremely broad. It has been instrumental in extending the field of TBI research and in exposing pressing medical and social issues that affect those who suffer such injuries. This review summarizes the history of conflict-related TBI research and the VHIS to date, as well as the vast range of important findings the VHIS has established.

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Deficits in Social Knowledge Following Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Biological and cognitive underpinnings of religious fundamentalism

Biological and cognitive underpinnings of religious fundamentalism

The role of the hippocampus in flexible cognition and social behavior

“Studying Injured Minds” – The Vietnam Head Injury Study and 40 Years of Brain Injury Research

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