Hi,
Thought some list members might appreciate this:
From the recent issue of The Lancet:
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol357/iss9253/full/llan.357.9253.news.15155.3
"Theory of mind" located in right prefrontal
cortex
The ability to empathise with another human being is located within the
right prefrontal cortex, according to a report published this week.
"The authors demonstrate in an extremely elegant manner that the
right prefrontal cortex is critical in two of the most complex cognitive
abilities--perspective taking and deception", comments Julian Keenan
(Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA).
Donald Stuss (University of Toronto, Canada) and co-workers tested 32
patients with focal brain lesions. The patients sat on the opposite side
of a table to the experimenter. On top of the table was a small curtain
that could obscure the patient's view of the researcher (Brain 2001;
124:279-86).
In the first experiment two assistants joined the task--one sat by the
experimenter and one by the patient. With the curtain drawn closed, the
experimenter hid a ball under one of five coffee
cups. When the curtain was drawn open, the two assistants moved behind
the experimenter
and each pointed to one of the cups; the patient was asked which cup the
ball was hidden
under. The purpose of the experiment was to test whether the patients
understood that only the
assistant who sat next to the experimenter actually saw where the ball
was hidden. Individuals
with frontal lesions had a much higher error rate on the task, with the
right frontal lobe
appearing to be most critical.
In the second task only one assitant took part, sitting at the table
beside the experimenter, and only two cups were used. In each case the
assistant pointed to the wrong cup and the patients had to infer that the
assistant was trying to deceive them. Those patients with damage to the
right inferior medial prefrontal cortex had most difficulty catching on
to the ruse.
"The patient is no longer sensitive to others, because he lacks the
ability to get in contact with past similar experiences, the relevance to
the current situation, and the emotional significance attached to
them", explains Stuss. Writing in an accompanying commentary, Tim
Shallice (University of London, UK) points out that the medial prefrontal
cortex has been involved in
reports of mental state in a number of imaging studies. This
correspondence, using two very
different methodologies, is "striking", he says.
James Butcher
_______________
Michael Lee, MA
Dept. of Psychology
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mdlee
