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Neural representation of social knowledge in the medial prefrontal cortex.

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Call No.	Ph.D. 2011
Author	Wagner, Dylan D.
Title	Neural representation of social knowledge in the medial prefrontal cortex.
Date	2011
Abstract	From the most minimal of person information, such as a photograph or a sentence, people are able to rapidly infer a multitude of complex personality traits. These social inferences are thought to rely upon cognitive representations of person knowledge (e.g., person schemas and stereotypes) that guide social perception and allow us to infer unseen traits from sparse observations about a person. Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that forming impressions and making mental state inferences relies on the medial prefrontal cortex. The majority of this work has focused on tasks in which participants are explicitly instructed to form impressions or infer thoughts and beliefs; however real-world impression formation usually occurs spontaneously. In this thesis, studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with model-based and data-driven techniques aim to uncover the central features of people''''s representations of other persons. Studies 1 and 2 used movies and visual scenes observed under natural viewing conditions in order to investigate the dominant social features that give rise to spontaneous recruitment of the medial prefrontal cortex. In Study 1, model-based and data-driven analyses converged to demonstrate that the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex is preferentially recruited when people view scenes of social interactions. Study 2 replicates and extends this finding using visual social scenes, demonstrating that medial prefrontal cortex is modulated by target social complexity, the similarity of actors to the observer, and the trait diagnosticity of targets' behaviors. Study 3 examined the neural representation of trait concepts. Using multivariate pattern analysis, Study 3 found that personality trait concepts are represented in patterns of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. Findings from these experiments offer neural evidence that activity in the medial prefrontal cortex during spontaneous social cognition is representing the contents of personality trait inferences. Furthermore, these results suggest that the contents of spontaneous social inferences may be decoded from patterns of brain activity.
Description	1 online resource (x, 163 leaves) : illustrations (some color)
Format	application/pdf
Advisor	Heatherton, Todd F. ; Kelley, William M. ; Haxby, James V. ; Macrae, C. N.
Subject	Social perception -- Physiological aspects. ; Prefrontal cortex -- Physiology.
College	Dartmouth College -- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Issuing Body	Dartmouth Dissertations are made available through the Dartmouth Digital Library.
Degree	Thesis (Ph.D)--Dartmouth College.
Copyright	In Copyright. This material is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by copyright law that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1349/ddlp.3463

Title	wagner2011 1
Full Text	NEURAL REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Psychological and Brain Sciences by Dylan D. Wagner DARTMOUTH COLLEGE Hanover, New Hampshire June, 2011

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