PMID- 17536964
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20070815
LR  - 20070531
IS  - 0898-929X (Print)
IS  - 0898-929X (Linking)
VI  - 19
IP  - 6
DP  - 2007 Jun
TI  - Distinct regions of the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with 
      self-referential processing and perspective taking.
PG  - 935-44
AB  - The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) appears to play a prominent role in two 
      fundamental aspects of social cognition, that is, self-referential processing and 
      perspective taking. However, it is currently unclear whether the same or 
      different regions of the MPFC mediate these two interdependent processes. This 
      functional magnetic resonance imaging study sought to clarify the issue by 
      manipulating both dimensions in a factorial design. Participants judged the 
      extent to which trait adjectives described their own personality (e.g., "Are you 
      sociable?") or the personality of a close friend (e.g., "Is Caroline sociable?") 
      and were also asked to put themselves in the place of their friend (i.e., to take 
      a third-person perspective) and estimate how this person would judge the 
      adjectives, with the target of the judgments again being either the self (e.g., 
      "According to Caroline, are you sociable?") or the other person (e.g., "According 
      to Caroline, is she sociable?"). We found that self-referential processing (i.e., 
      judgments targeting the self vs. the other person) yielded activation in the 
      ventral and dorsal anterior MPFC, whereas perspective taking (i.e., adopting the 
      other person's perspective, rather than one's own, when making judgments) 
      resulted in activation in the posterior dorsal MPFC; the interaction between the 
      two dimensions yielded activation in the left dorsal MPFC. These findings show 
      that self-referential processing and perspective taking recruit distinct regions 
      of the MPFC and suggest that the left dorsal MPFC may be involved in decoupling 
      one's own from other people's perspectives on the self.
FAU - D'Argembeau, Arnaud
AU  - D'Argembeau A
AD  - Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium. 
      a.dargembeau@ulg.ac.be
FAU - Ruby, Perrine
AU  - Ruby P
FAU - Collette, Fabienne
AU  - Collette F
FAU - Degueldre, Christian
AU  - Degueldre C
FAU - Balteau, Evelyne
AU  - Balteau E
FAU - Luxen, Andre
AU  - Luxen A
FAU - Maquet, Pierre
AU  - Maquet P
FAU - Salmon, Eric
AU  - Salmon E
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - United States
TA  - J Cogn Neurosci
JT  - Journal of cognitive neuroscience
JID - 8910747
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - *Brain Mapping
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods
MH  - Judgment/physiology
MH  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MH  - Male
MH  - Mental Processes/*physiology
MH  - Prefrontal Cortex/blood supply/*physiology
MH  - Reaction Time/physiology
MH  - *Self Concept
EDAT- 2007/06/01 09:00
MHDA- 2007/08/19 09:00
CRDT- 2007/06/01 09:00
PHST- 2007/06/01 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2007/08/19 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2007/06/01 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.6.935 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Jun;19(6):935-44. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.6.935.