The Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex Plays a Causal Role in Integrating Social Impressions from Faces and Verbal Descriptions

Abstract

Several neuroimaging studies point to a key role of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in the formation of socially relevant impressions. In 3 different experiments, participants were required to form socially relevant impressions about other individuals on the basis of text descriptions of their social behaviors, and to decide whether a face alone, a trait adjective (e.g., "selfish"), or a face presented with a trait adjective was consistent or inconsistent with the impression they had formed. Before deciding whether the target stimulus matched the impression they had previously formed, participants received transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the dmPFC, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, also implicated in social impression formation), or over a control site (vertex). Results from the 3 experiments converged in showing that interfering with dmPFC activity significantly delayed participants in responding whether a face-adjective pair was consistent with the impression they had formed. No effects of TMS were observed following stimulation of the IFG or when evaluations had to be made on faces or trait adjectives presented alone. Our findings critically extend previous neuroimaging evidence by indicating a causal role of the dmPFC in creating coherent impressions based on the integration of face and verbal description of social behaviors.

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex mediates the interaction between moral and aesthetic valuation: a TMS study on thebeauty-is-goodstereotype

“…This is in line with prior TMS evidence showing that interfering with dmPFC activity did not impact perceived face trustworthiness when the judgment was exclusively based upon facial appearance (Ferrari et al , 2016, supplementary data), and with prior neuroimaging evidence indicating that evaluations uniquely based on face appearance are likely to elicit responses in subcortical (e.g., amygdala) more than in cortical regions (Said et al , 2009; Baron et al , 2011; de Gelder et al , 2012, Fouragnan et al , 2013; Mende-Siedlecki et al , 2013; but see Bzdock et al . , 2012a).…”

Interfering with activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex via TMS affects social impressions updating

“…In a previous work (Ferrari et al, 2016), we found that online TMS over the dmPFC delayed fast dichotomous (yes/ no) responses when participants had to decide whether a faceadjective pair (for instance, a face accompanied by the adjective "selfish") matched the impression they had formed about that agent by reading a description of his behavior. In that work, it was the target stimulus to be "congruent" or "incongruent" with the impression formed, and response accuracy could be measured because the trait-adjective was clearly either in line or in contrast with the behavior described (hence, not surprisingly, accuracy was very high, above 90%).…”

“…Neuroimaging and brain stimulation evidence suggests that forming social impressions about others and/or judging their trustworthiness involves the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) (Cattaneo, Mattavelli, Platania, & Papagno, 2011;Cloutier, Gabrieli, O'Young, & Ambady, 2011;Ferrari et al, 2016;Ma et al, 2012;; Mende-Siedlecki, Baron, & Todorov, 2013;Mende-Siedlecki, Cai, & Todorov 2012;Schiller, Freeman, Mitchell, Uleman, & Phelps, 2009). Interestingly, this region is also involved in processing socially relevant emotions (such as arrogance or guilt) beyond basic emotions (Jankowski & Takahashi, 2014;see also D'Agata et al, 2011).…”

Dynamic Changes in Amygdala Psychophysiological Connectivity Reveal Distinct Neural Networks for Facial Expressions of Basic Emotions

“…Although the dlPFC subserves multiple functions and seems to regulate various emotional states969798, recent studies implicate the dlPFC in sadness and depression99, especially during cognitive reappraisal and regulation of this emotion100. In such tasks, reappraisal minimizes the experience of negative affect after viewing sad stimuli and amygdala responses are dampened, possibly via the inhibitory function of the dlPFC101.…”