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Lockwood PL, Cutler J, Drew D, Abdurahman A, Jeyaretna DS, Apps MAJ, Husain M, Manohar SG. Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary for prosocial motivation. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:1403-1416. [PMID: 38802539 PMCID: PMC11272586 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01899-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is vital for decision-making. Functional neuroimaging links vmPFC to processing rewards and effort, while parallel work suggests vmPFC involvement in prosocial behaviour. However, the necessity of vmPFC for these functions is unknown. Patients with rare focal vmPFC lesions (n = 25), patients with lesions elsewhere (n = 15) and healthy controls (n = 40) chose between rest and exerting effort to earn rewards for themselves or another person. vmPFC damage decreased prosociality across behavioural and computational measures. vmPFC patients earned less, discounted rewards by effort more, and exerted less force when another person benefited, compared to both control groups. Voxel-based lesion mapping revealed dissociations between vmPFC subregions. While medial damage led to antisocial behaviour, lateral damage increased prosocial behaviour relative to patients with damage elsewhere. vmPFC patients also showed reduced effort sensitivity overall, but reward sensitivity was limited to specific subregions. These results reveal multiple causal contributions of vmPFC to prosocial behaviour, effort and reward.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia L Lockwood
- Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Jo Cutler
- Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Daniel Drew
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Ayat Abdurahman
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Deva Sanjeeva Jeyaretna
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Matthew A J Apps
- Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Masud Husain
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Sanjay G Manohar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
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Brockett AT, Kumar N, Sharalla P, Roesch MR. Optogenetic Inhibition of the Orbitofrontal Cortex Disrupts Inhibitory Control during Stop-Change Performance in Male Rats. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0015-24.2024. [PMID: 38697842 PMCID: PMC11097625 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0015-24.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2024] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Historically, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has been implicated in a variety of behaviors ranging from reversal learning and inhibitory control to more complex representations of reward value and task space. While modern interpretations of the OFC's function have focused on a role in outcome evaluation, these cognitive processes often require an organism to inhibit a maladaptive response or strategy. Single-unit recordings from the OFC in rats performing a stop-change task show that the OFC responds strongly to STOP trials. To investigate the role that the OFC plays in stop-change performance, we expressed halorhodopsin (eNpHR3.0) in excitatory neurons in the OFC and tested rats on the stop-change task. Previous work suggests that the OFC differentiates between STOP trials based on trial sequence (i.e., gS trials: STOP trials preceded by a GO vs sS trials: STOP trials preceded by a STOP). We found that yellow light activation of the eNpHR3.0-expressing neurons significantly decreased accuracy only on STOP trials that followed GO trials (gS trials). Further, optogenetic inhibition of the OFC speeded reaction times on error trials. This suggests that the OFC plays a role in inhibitory control processes and that this role needs to be accounted for in modern interpretations of OFC function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam T Brockett
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824
| | - Neeraj Kumar
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Paul Sharalla
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Matthew R Roesch
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
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Ma CC, Lin YY, Chung YA, Park SY, Huang CCY, Chang WC, Chang HA. The two-back task leads to activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia patients with predominant negative symptoms: a fNIRS study and its implication for tDCS. Exp Brain Res 2024; 242:585-597. [PMID: 38227007 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06769-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Accepted: 12/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024]
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has shown some potential as an adjunctive intervention for ameliorating negative symptoms of schizophrenia, but its efficacy requires optimization. Recently, 'functional targeting' of stimulation holds promise for advancing tDCS efficacy by coupling tDCS with a cognitive task where the target brain regions are activated by that task and further specifically polarized by tDCS.The study used 48-channel functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) aiming to determine a cognitive task that can effectively induce a cortical activation of the left DLPFC in schizophrenia patients with predominant negative symptoms before running a tDCS trial. Sixty schizophrenia patients with predominant negative symptoms completed measures of clinical and psychosocial functioning characteristics and assessments across cognitive domains. Hemodynamic changes during n-back working memory tasks with different cognitive loads (1-back and 2-back) and verbal fluency test (VFT) were measured using fNIRS. For n-back tasks, greater signal changes were found when the task required elevated cognitive load. One sample t-test revealed that only 2-back task elicited significant activation in left DLPFC (t = 4.23, FDR-corrected p = 0.0007). During VFT, patients failed to show significant task-related activity in left DLPFC (one sample t-test, t = -0.25, FDR-corrected p > 0.05). Our study implies that 2-back task can effectively activate left DLPFC in schizophrenia patients with predominant negative symptoms. This neurophysiologically-validated task is considered highly potential to be executed in conjunction with high-definition tDCS for "functional targeting" of the left DLPFC to treat negative symptoms in a double-blind randomized sham-control trial, registered on ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (ID: NCT05582980).
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Affiliation(s)
- Chin-Chao Ma
- Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, Beitou Branch, National Defense Medical Center, No. 325, Cheng-Kung Road, Sec. 2, Nei-Hu District, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yen-Yue Lin
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Department of Life Sciences, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
| | - Yong-An Chung
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Sonya Youngju Park
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
| | | | - Wei-Chou Chang
- Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsin-An Chang
- Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, Beitou Branch, National Defense Medical Center, No. 325, Cheng-Kung Road, Sec. 2, Nei-Hu District, Taipei, Taiwan.
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Levy R. The prefrontal cortex: from monkey to man. Brain 2024; 147:794-815. [PMID: 37972282 PMCID: PMC10907097 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awad389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Revised: 10/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The prefrontal cortex is so important to human beings that, if deprived of it, our behaviour is reduced to action-reactions and automatisms, with no ability to make deliberate decisions. Why does the prefrontal cortex hold such importance in humans? In answer, this review draws on the proximity between humans and other primates, which enables us, through comparative anatomical-functional analysis, to understand the cognitive functions we have in common and specify those that distinguish humans from their closest cousins. First, a focus on the lateral region of the prefrontal cortex illustrates the existence of a continuum between rhesus monkeys (the most studied primates in neuroscience) and humans for most of the major cognitive functions in which this region of the brain plays a central role. This continuum involves the presence of elementary mental operations in the rhesus monkey (e.g. working memory or response inhibition) that are constitutive of 'macro-functions' such as planning, problem-solving and even language production. Second, the human prefrontal cortex has developed dramatically compared to that of other primates. This increase seems to concern the most anterior part (the frontopolar cortex). In humans, the development of the most anterior prefrontal cortex is associated with three major and interrelated cognitive changes: (i) a greater working memory capacity, allowing for greater integration of past experiences and prospective futures; (ii) a greater capacity to link discontinuous or distant data, whether temporal or semantic; and (iii) a greater capacity for abstraction, allowing humans to classify knowledge in different ways, to engage in analogical reasoning or to acquire abstract values that give rise to our beliefs and morals. Together, these new skills enable us, among other things, to develop highly sophisticated social interactions based on language, enabling us to conceive beliefs and moral judgements and to conceptualize, create and extend our vision of our environment beyond what we can physically grasp. Finally, a model of the transition of prefrontal functions between humans and non-human primates concludes this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Levy
- AP–HP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Department of Neurology, Sorbonne Université, Institute of Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease, 75013 Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM U1127, CNRS 7225, Paris Brain Institute- ICM, 75013 Paris, France
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Liao J, Li J, Qiu Y, Wu X, Liu B, Zhang L, Zhang Y, Peng X, Huang R. Dissociable contributions of the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex to representing task space in a social context. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhad447. [PMID: 38011099 PMCID: PMC10793565 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The hippocampus (HC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) jointly encode a map-like representation of a task space to guide behavior. It remains unclear how the OFC and HC interact in encoding this map-like representation, though previous studies indicated that both regions have different functions. We acquired the functional magnetic resonance imaging data under a social navigation task in which participants interacted with characters in a two-dimensional "social space." We calculate the social relationships between the participants and characters and used a drift-diffusion model to capture the inner process of social interaction. Then we used multivoxel pattern analysis to explore the brain-behavior relationship. We found that (i) both the HC and the OFC showed higher activations during the selective trial than the narrative trial; (ii) the neural pattern of the right HC was associated with evidence accumulation during social interaction, and the pattern of the right lateral OFC was associated with the social relationship; (iii) the neural pattern of the HC can decode the participants choices, while the neural pattern of the OFC can decode the task information about trials. The study provided evidence for distinct roles of the HC and the OFC in encoding different information when representing social space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiajun Liao
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Jinhui Li
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Yidan Qiu
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiaoyan Wu
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Bingyi Liu
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Lu Zhang
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Yuting Zhang
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiaoqi Peng
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
| | - Ruiwang Huang
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong, China
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Delgado MR, Fareri DS, Chang LJ. Characterizing the mechanisms of social connection. Neuron 2023; 111:3911-3925. [PMID: 37804834 PMCID: PMC10842352 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how individuals form and maintain strong social networks has emerged as a significant public health priority as a result of the increased focus on the epidemic of loneliness and the myriad protective benefits conferred by social connection. In this review, we highlight the psychological and neural mechanisms that enable us to connect with others, which in turn help buffer against the consequences of stress and isolation. Central to this process is the experience of rewards derived from positive social interactions, which encourage the sharing of perspectives and preferences that unite individuals. Sharing affective states with others helps us to align our understanding of the world with another's, thereby continuing to reinforce bonds and strengthen relationships. These psychological processes depend on neural systems supporting reward and social cognitive function. Lastly, we also consider limitations associated with pursuing healthy social connections and outline potential avenues of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauricio R Delgado
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
| | - Dominic S Fareri
- Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, USA
| | - Luke J Chang
- Consortium for Interacting Minds, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
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