AI Article Synopsis
- Research indicates that the cerebellum plays a role in social behavior and mentalizing, which involves recognizing others' mental states.
- A study used cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on 23 participants to analyze their brain activity while performing tasks involving social action sequences.
- Results showed that tDCS impaired task performance and decreased activation in key brain areas associated with mentalizing, particularly for true belief sequences, highlighting the cerebellum's influence on social cognition.
Article Abstract
Research on the involvement of the cerebellum in social behavior and its relationship with social mentalizing has just begun. Social mentalizing is the ability to attribute mental states such as desires, intentions, and beliefs to others. This ability involves the use of social action sequences which are believed to be stored in the cerebellum. In order to better understand the neurobiology of social mentalizing, we applied cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on 23 healthy participants in the MRI scanner, immediately followed by measuring their brain activity during a task that required to generate the correct sequence of social actions involving false (i.e., outdated) and true beliefs, social routines and non-social (control) events. The results revealed that stimulation decreased task performance along with decreased brain activation in mentalizing areas, including the temporoparietal junction and the precuneus. This decrease was strongest for true belief sequences compared to the other sequences. These findings support the functional impact of the cerebellum on the mentalizing network and belief mentalizing, contributing to the understanding of the role of the cerebellum in social sequences.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9922820 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100373 | DOI Listing |
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