The neural basis for establishing a focal point in pure coordination games.
When making a decision, humans often have to 'coordinate'-reach the same conclusion-as another individual without explicitly communicating. Relatively, little is known about the neural basis for coordination. Moreover, previous fMRI investigations have supported conflicting hypotheses. One account proposes that individuals coordinate using a 'gut feeling' and that this is supported by insula recruitment. Another account proposes that individuals recruit strategic decision-making mechanisms in prefrontal cortex in order to coordinate. We investigate the neural basis for coordination in individuals with behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) who have limitations in social decision-making associated with disease in prefrontal cortex. We demonstrate that bvFTD are impaired at establishing a focal point in a semantic task (e.g. 'Tell me any boy's name') that requires coordination relative to a similar, control semantic task that does not. Additionally, coordination limitations in bvFTD are related to cortical thinning in prefrontal cortex. These findings are consistent with behavioral economic models proposing that, beyond a 'gut feeling', strategic decision-making contributes to the coordination process, including a probabilistic mechanism that evaluates the salience of a response (e.g. is 'John' a frequent boy's name), a hierarchical mechanism that iteratively models an opponent's likely response and a mechanism involved in social perspective taking.
Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, USA. mcmillac@mail.med.upenn.edu
Corey T
CT
McMillan
Katya
K
Rascovsky
M Catherine
MC
Khella
Robin
R
Clark
Murray
M
Grossman
D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning