The neural representation of mental beliefs held by two agents.

Neuroimaging research has demonstrated that mentalizing about false beliefs held by other people recruits the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). However, earlier work was limited to a single agent that held a false belief. We investigated the effect of two agents that held similar or mixed false and/or true beliefs.

Context-dependent modulation of cognitive control involves different temporal profiles of fronto-parietal activity.

To efficiently deal with quickly changing task demands, we often need to organize our behaviour on different time scales. For example, to ignore irrelevant and select relevant information, cognitive control might be applied in reactive (short time scale) or proactive (long time scale) mode. These two control modes play a pivotal role in cognitive-neuroscientific theorizing but the temporal dissociation of the underlying neural mechanisms is not well established empirically.

Athlete or athletic? Limited differential brain activation in person descriptions using nouns or adjectives.

Do differences between the syntactic categories of nouns and adjectives for describing persons translate into different patterns of brain activation? In this fMRI study, we compared reading person and object descriptions denoted by nouns or adjectives. Previous behavioral studies found that nouns, describing the more abstract construct of social categories, compared to adjectives, describing the more concrete construct of personality traits, have an impact on the inferences made about a person. Additionally, previous neuroimaging findings suggest that abstract constructs recruit a different pattern of brain activation, compared to more concrete constructs.

The overlap between false belief and spatial reorientation in the temporo-parietal junction: The role of input modality and task.

Neuroimaging research has demonstrated that the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is activated when unexpected stimuli appear in spatial reorientation tasks as well as during thinking about the beliefs of other people triggered by verbal scenarios. While the role of potential common component processes subserved by the TPJ has been extensively studied to explain this common activation, the potential confounding role of input modality (spatial vs. verbal) has been largely ignored.

ERP correlates of script chronology violations.

Research indicates a distinction between the processing of script content (which events, behaviors, scenes… are part of it) and script chronology (what is their usual order of occurrence). Using sequences of two line drawings depicting everyday social script events, we examined the event related potential (ERP) correlates of script chronology violations (i.e.

Distinct neural correlates of social categories and personality traits.

Does the processing of social category-related versus trait-related information generate a different pattern of brain activation? In this fMRI study, we compared the processing of behaviors performed by a member of a social category versus an individual, both possessing similar personality traits. Based on previous behavioral studies we predicted that the processing of social category-related information would recruit more activation in brain areas related to mentalizing than individual trait-related information. Participants read sentences describing behaviors performed by a member of a social category (of which the stereotype involves a given trait) or by an individual possessing the same trait.

Dissociation of a trait and a valence representation in the mPFC.

A previous functional MRI adaptation study on trait inference indicated that a trait code is located in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), but could not rule out that this adaptation effect is due to the trait's underlying valence. To address this issue, we presented sentences describing positive and negative valences of either a human trait or object characteristic, and manipulated whether the human trait or object characteristic was repeated or not, either with the same or opposite valance. In two trait conditions, a behavioral trait-implying sentence was preceded by a prime sentence that implied the same or the opposite trait.

N400 and LPP in spontaneous trait inferences.

Past research on spontaneous trait inferences using event related potentials (ERPs) has consistently reported increased late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes following social expectancy violations, but no N400 modulation. In the present study, participants read scenarios describing behaviors of unknown actors. They entailed descriptions of several positive trait implying behaviors, followed by a single final sentence describing behavior that was either consistent or inconsistent with the previously implied trait.

ERP time course and brain areas of spontaneous and intentional goal inferences.

This study measured event-related potentials during spontaneous and intentional goal inferences. Participants read sentences describing the behavior of a target person from which a strong goal or intention could be inferred. The last word of each sentence determined the consistency with the goal induced during preceding sentences.