Perspective-taking is associated with increased discriminability of affective states in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

ABSTRACT: Recent work using multivariate-pattern analysis (MVPA) on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has found that distinct affective states produce correspondingly distinct patterns of neural activity in the cerebral cortex. However, it is unclear whether individual differences in the distinctiveness of neural patterns evoked by affective stimuli underlie empathic abilities such as perspective-taking (PT). Accordingly, we examined whether we could predict PT tendency from the classification of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI activation patterns while participants (n = 57) imagined themselves in affectively charged scenarios. We used an MVPA searchlight analysis to map where in the brain activity patterns permitted the classification of four affective states: happiness, sa

SUBMITTER: Vaccaro AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9714424 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature