Validating the Why/How contrast for functional MRI studies of Theory of Mind.

ABSTRACT: The ability to impute mental states to others, or Theory of Mind (ToM), has been the subject of hundreds of neuroimaging studies. Although reviews and meta-analyses of these studies have concluded that ToM recruits a coherent brain network, mounting evidence suggests that this network is an abstraction based on pooling data from numerous studies, most of which use different behavioral tasks to investigate ToM. Problematically, this means that no single behavioral task can be used to reliably measure ToM Network function as currently conceived. To make ToM Network function scientifically tractable, we need standardized tasks capable of reliably measuring specific aspects of its functioning. Here, our goal is to validate the Why/How Task for this purpose. Several prior studies have found tha

SUBMITTER: Spunt RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4111963 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature