Structured event complexes in the medial prefrontal cortex support counterfactual representations for future planning

AUTOR(ES)

Barbey, Aron K.

FONTE

The Royal Society

RESUMO

We propose that counterfactual representations for reasoning about the past or predicting the future depend on structured event complexes (SECs) in the human prefrontal cortex (PFC; ‘What would happen if X were performed in the past or enacted in the future?’). We identify three major categories of counterfactual thought (concerning action versus inaction, the self versus other and upward versus downward thinking) and propose that each form of inference recruits SEC representations in distinct regions of the medial PFC. We develop a process model of the regulatory functions these representations serve and draw conclusions about the importance of SECs for explaining the past and predicting the future.

Documentos Relacionados

• Dissociating the role of the medial and lateral anterior prefrontal cortex in human planning
• Emotion regulation in spider phobia: role of the medial prefrontal cortex
• Functional Dissociations of Risk and Reward Processing in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex for psychiatric disorders: a systematic review
• Emotion-induced changes in human medial prefrontal cortex: II. During anticipatory anxiety