title: An fMRI study on the comparison of different types of false belief reasoning: False belief-based emotion and behavior attribution.
abstract: False belief (FB) reasoning is a key Theory of Mind (ToM) competence. By 4 years of age, children understand that a person's behavior can be based on a FB about reality. Children cannot understand that a person's emotion can also be based on a FB before the age of six. In order to generate hypothesis on basic processes distinguishing these two types of belief reasoning, the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study in adults directly compares functional activity associated with these two FB tasks. Both tasks were associated with activity in the ToM network including the medial prefrontal cortex and the left temporo-parietal junction. Differential activity was observed in the anterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for FB-based emotion relative to behavior attribution. Contrary to FB behavior attribution, FB-based emotion attribution requires the processing of two different mental states: a belief and an emotion and their relation to each other. The activity pattern may reflect the differential demands on cognitive processes associated with the two different belief-based attribution processes. These results shed new light on the still ongoing debate about the nature of the developmental lag between the two FB tasks.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Döhnel
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Ludwig-Maximilians-University , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schuwerk
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Ludwig-Maximilians-University , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sodian
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hajak
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rupprecht
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.|b Department of Psychology , Ludwig-Maximilians-University , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Theory of Mind; dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; emotion attribution; fMRI; false belief