title: Individuals' and groups' intentions in the medial prefrontal cortex.
abstract: Functional MRI signal was recorded while participants perceived stimuli presented using moving dots. In two conditions of interest, the motion of dots depicted intentions: dots representing the joints of an agent performing an action, and dots representing individual agents behaving contingently. The finding of a common cluster in the posterior part of the medial frontal cortex involved in intentional action representation validates the hypothesis that perception of these two conditions requires a similar internal representation. A cluster responding to the behaving group only is found in the anterior medial frontal cortex. These results support a division of the medial frontal cortex according to social stimuli attributes, with anterior areas responding to higher-order group behaviours integrating the action of multiple individual agents.
authors: Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Méditerranée, CNRS, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France. tchamina@gmail.com
authors: Thierry
authors: T
authors: Chaminade
authors: Mitsuo
authors: M
authors: Kawato
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Frith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult