Distinct neural correlates underlying pretense and false belief reasoning: Evidence from ERPs

Meinhardt, Joerg and Kuehn-Popp, Nina and Sommer, Monika and Sodian, Beate (2012) Distinct neural correlates underlying pretense and false belief reasoning: Evidence from ERPs. NEUROIMAGE, 63 (2). pp. 623-631. ISSN 1053-8119,

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Two important milestones characterize the development of a Theory of Mind (ToM): The emergence of pretend play (PT) in which infants as young as 18 months separate the real world from fictional or imagined worlds. And the explicit understanding of false beliefs (FB) which develops around the age of about 4 years and demands a differentiation between mental states and reality. Although there is an outstanding debate about whether or not PT play involves metarepresentation understanding, to date, the neural correlates of FB and FT reasoning have not been investigated within one paradigm. The present study investigated PT and FB in comparison to reality understanding (RE) in an ERP paradigm presenting cartoon stories to 24 healthy adults. Results revealed a sequence of ERP components that distinguished between the conditions. PT compared to FB and RE was associated with a higher P2-amplitude at parieto-occipital sites and a late slow wave divergence (270-600 ms) at left frontal and left posterior positions. These components may indicate the processing of incongruity between the protagonist's knowledge and behavior and the identifying of the intentional character of the pretended action. In accordance with previous ERP studies on FB reasoning, we found late anterior activation (600-900 ms) for FB reasoning, probably indicating the decoupling mechanism involved in metarepresentation. These temporal and topographic differences indicate distinct underlying neural substrates for FB and PT processing, and do not support metarepresentational interpretations of PT. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: TEMPORO-PARIETAL JUNCTION; THEORY-OF-MIND; BEHAVING-AS-IF; SOCIAL COGNITION; BRAIN; CORTEX; STATE; REPRESENTATIONS; METAANALYSIS; INTENTIONS; Theory of mind; Metacognition; Pretense; False belief; Event related potentials
Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine
Divisions: Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Depositing User: Dr. Gernot Deinzer
Date Deposited: 05 May 2020 05:27
Last Modified: 05 May 2020 05:27
URI: https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/17916

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item