title: The Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex Plays a Causal Role in Integrating Social Impressions from Faces and Verbal Descriptions.
abstract: Several neuroimaging studies point to a key role of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in the formation of socially relevant impressions. In 3 different experiments, participants were required to form socially relevant impressions about other individuals on the basis of text descriptions of their social behaviors, and to decide whether a face alone, a trait adjective (e.g., "selfish"), or a face presented with a trait adjective was consistent or inconsistent with the impression they had formed. Before deciding whether the target stimulus matched the impression they had previously formed, participants received transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the dmPFC, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, also implicated in social impression formation), or over a control site (vertex). Results from the 3 experiments converged in showing that interfering with dmPFC activity significantly delayed participants in responding whether a face-adjective pair was consistent with the impression they had formed. No effects of TMS were observed following stimulation of the IFG or when evaluations had to be made on faces or trait adjectives presented alone. Our findings critically extend previous neuroimaging evidence by indicating a causal role of the dmPFC in creating coherent impressions based on the integration of face and verbal description of social behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy Brain Connectivity Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia 27100, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan 20126, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlotta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lega
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan 20126, Italy Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan 20126, Italy.
authors.forename: Mirta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vernice
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Turin 10124, Italy Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, and CoRPS, Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases, Tilburg University, Tilburg 5037 AB, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tamietto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mende-Siedlecki
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy Brain Connectivity Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia 27100, Italy.
authors.forename: Tomaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vecchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Todorov
authors.affiliation: Brain Connectivity Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia 27100, Italy Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan 20126, Italy.
authors.forename: Zaira
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cattaneo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods
keywords: TMS; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; faces; impressions formation; inferior frontal gyrus; social inference; social traits