scholarly journals Self-related processing and future thinking: Distinct contributions of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobes

Cortex ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mieke Verfaellie ◽  
Aubrey A. Wank ◽  
Allison G. Reid ◽  
Elizabeth Race ◽  
Margaret M. Keane
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Temporal Lobes

scholarly journals The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in reward valuation and future thinking during intertemporal choice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Ciaramelli ◽  
Flavia De Luca ◽  
Donna Kwan ◽  
Jenkin N. Y. Mok ◽  
Francesca Bianconi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reward Magnitude ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Reward Valuation

Intertemporal choices require trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage causes steep discounting of future rewards (delay discounting; DD) and impoverished episodic future thinking (EFT). The role of vmPFC in reward valuation, EFT, and their interaction during intertemporal choice is still unclear. Here, twelve patients with lesions to vmPFC and forty-one healthy controls chose between smallerimmediate and larger-delayed rewards while we manipulated reward magnitude and the availability of EFT cues. In the EFT condition, participants imagined personal events to occur at the delays associated with the larger-delayed rewards. We found that DD was steeper in vmPFC patients compared to controls, and not modulated by reward magnitude. However, EFT cues downregulated DD in vmPFC patients as well as controls. These findings indicate that vmPFC integrity is critical for the valuation of (future) rewards, but not to instill EFT in intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals Neural Pattern Change During Encoding of a Narrative Predicts Retrospective Duration Estimates

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Lositsky ◽  
Janice Chen ◽  
Daniel Toker ◽  
Christopher J Honey ◽  
Jordan L Poppenk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Entorhinal Cortex ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Anterior Temporal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
Pattern Change ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Right

What mechanisms support our ability to estimate durations on the order of minutes? Behavioral studies in humans have shown that changes in contextual features lead to overestimation of past durations. Based on evidence that the medial temporal lobes and prefrontal cortex represent contextual features, we related the degree of fMRI pattern change in these regions with people's subsequent duration estimates. After listening to a radio story in the scanner, participants were asked how much time had elapsed between pairs of clips from the story. Our ROI analysis found that the neural pattern distance between two clips at encoding was correlated with duration estimates in the right entorhinal cortex and right pars orbitalis. Moreover, a whole-brain searchlight analysis revealed a cluster spanning the right anterior temporal lobe. Our findings provide convergent support for the hypothesis that retrospective time judgments are driven by 'drift' in contextual representations supported by these regions.

scholarly journals Neural pattern change during encoding of a narrative predicts retrospective duration estimates

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Lositsky ◽  
Janice Chen ◽  
Daniel Toker ◽  
Christopher J Honey ◽  
Michael Shvartsman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Entorhinal Cortex ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Anterior Temporal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
Pattern Change ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Right

What mechanisms support our ability to estimate durations on the order of minutes? Behavioral studies in humans have shown that changes in contextual features lead to overestimation of past durations. Based on evidence that the medial temporal lobes and prefrontal cortex represent contextual features, we related the degree of fMRI pattern change in these regions with people’s subsequent duration estimates. After listening to a radio story in the scanner, participants were asked how much time had elapsed between pairs of clips from the story. Our ROI analyses found that duration estimates were correlated with the neural pattern distance between two clips at encoding in the right entorhinal cortex. Moreover, whole-brain searchlight analyses revealed a cluster spanning the right anterior temporal lobe. Our findings provide convergent support for the hypothesis that retrospective time judgments are driven by 'drift' in contextual representations supported by these regions.

scholarly journals The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in reward valuation and future thinking during intertemporal choice

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Ciaramelli ◽  
Flavia De Luca ◽  
Donna Kwan ◽  
Jenkin Mok ◽  
Francesca Bianconi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reward Magnitude ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Reward Valuation

Intertemporal choices require trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage causes steep discounting of future rewards (delay discounting [DD]) and impoverished episodic future thinking (EFT). The role of vmPFC in reward valuation, EFT, and their interaction during intertemporal choice is still unclear. Here, 12 patients with lesions to vmPFC and 41 healthy controls chose between smaller-immediate and larger-delayed hypothetical monetary rewards while we manipulated reward magnitude and the availability of EFT cues. In the EFT condition, participants imagined personal events to occur at the delays associated with the larger-delayed rewards. We found that DD was steeper in vmPFC patients compared to controls, and not modulated by reward magnitude. However, EFT cues downregulated DD in vmPFC patients as well as controls. These findings indicate that vmPFC integrity is critical for the valuation of (future) rewards, but not to instill EFT in intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals Autobiographical memory unknown: Pervasive autobiographical memory loss encompassing personality trait knowledge in an individual with medial temporal lobe amnesia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrey Anne Ladd Wank ◽  
Anna Robertson ◽  
Sean C. Thayer ◽  
Mieke Verfaellie ◽  
Steven Z. Rapcsak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Temporal Lobes

Autobiographical memory consists of distinct memory types varying from highly abstract to episodic. Self trait knowledge, which is considered one of the more abstract types of autobiographical memory, is thought to rely on regions of the autobiographical memory neural network implicated in schema representation, including the medial prefrontal cortex, and critically, not the medial temporal lobes. The current case study introduces an individual who, as a consequence of bilateral posterior cerebral artery strokes, experienced extensive medial temporal lobe damage with sparing of the medial prefrontal cortex. Interestingly, in addition to severe retrograde and anterograde episodic and autobiographical fact amnesia, this individual’s self trait knowledge was impaired for his current and pre-morbid personality traits. Yet, further assessment revealed that this individual had preserved conceptual knowledge for personality traits, could reliably and accurately rate another person’s traits, and could access his own self-concept in a variety of ways. In addition to autobiographical memory loss, he demonstrated impairment on non-personal semantic memory tests, most notably on tests requiring retrieval of unique knowledge. This rare case of amnesia suggests a previously unreported role for the medial temporal lobes in personal trait knowledge, which we propose reflects the critical role of this neural region in the storage and retrieval of personal semantics that are experience-near, meaning autobiographical facts grounded in spatiotemporal contexts.

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