 |
The Journal of Neuroscience, May 26, 2004, 24(21):4912-4917; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0481-04.2004
Previous Article | Next Article 
Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Encoding-Specific Effects of Social Cognition on the Neural Correlates of Subsequent Memory
Jason P. Mitchell,1,2
C. Neil Macrae,1 and
Mahzarin R. Banaji2
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, and 2Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
To examine whether social cognition recruits distinct mental operations, we measured brain activity during social ("form an impression of this person") and relatively nonsocial ("remember the order in which person information is presented") orienting tasks. Extending previous research on the neural basis of social cognition, the impression formation task differentially engaged an extensive region of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, the nonsocial sequencing task differentially engaged the superior frontal and parietal gyri, precentral gyrus, and the caudate. In addition, we compared encoding activations for subsequently remembered (i.e., hits) to subsequently forgotten (i.e., misses) items. The brain regions in which the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal distinguished subsequent hits from subsequent misses depended on which orienting task was performed at encoding: subsequent memory was correlated with encoding activity only in the medial PFC for impression formation trials but in the right hippocampus for sequencing trials. These data inform two interrelated cognitive issues. First, results underscore the neuroanatomical distinctiveness of social cognition and suggest that previous psychological theories may have neglected important functional differences in how the human brain instantiates social and nonsocial cognitive processes. Second, by demonstrating that activity in different brain regions correlates with subsequent memory as a function of the orienting task performed at encoding, these data provide evidence of the neural basis for encoding specificity, the principle that memory is critically determined by the cognitive process engaged by the initial study episode.
Key words: hippocampus; memory; functional magnetic resonance imaging; medial prefrontal cortex; social cognition; theory of mind
Received Feb 10, 2004;
revised March 22, 2004;
accepted April 1, 2004.
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
P. Tavares, A. D. Lawrence, and P. J. Barnard
Paying Attention to Social Meaning: An fMRI Study
Cereb Cortex,
August 1, 2008;
18(8):
1876 - 1885.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
H. Park, M. R. Uncapher, and M. D. Rugg
Effects of study task on the neural correlates of source encoding
Learn. Mem.,
May 29, 2008;
15(6):
417 - 425.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
H. Park and M. D. Rugg
The Relationship between Study Processing and the Effects of Cue Congruency at Retrieval: fMRI Support for Transfer Appropriate Processing
Cereb Cortex,
April 1, 2008;
18(4):
868 - 875.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. P. Mitchell
Activity in Right Temporo-Parietal Junction is Not Selective for Theory-of-Mind
Cereb Cortex,
February 1, 2008;
18(2):
262 - 271.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
R. A. Mar, W. M. Kelley, T. F. Heatherton, and C. N. Macrae
Detecting agency from the biological motion of veridical vs animated agents
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci,
September 1, 2007;
2(3):
199 - 205.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
L. J. Otten
Fragments of a Larger Whole: Retrieval Cues Constrain Observed Neural Correlates of Memory Encoding
Cereb Cortex,
September 1, 2007;
17(9):
2030 - 2038.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. H. Pfeifer, M. D. Lieberman, and M. Dapretto
"I know you are but what am I?!": neural bases of self- and social knowledge retrieval in children and adults.
J. Cogn. Neurosci.,
August 1, 2007;
19(8):
1323 - 1337.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
A. D'Argembeau, P. Ruby, F. Collette, C. Degueldre, E. Balteau, A. Luxen, P. Maquet, and E. Salmon
Distinct regions of the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with self-referential processing and perspective taking.
J. Cogn. Neurosci.,
June 1, 2007;
19(6):
935 - 944.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
P.-O. Harvey, P. Fossati, and M. Lepage
Modulation of memory formation by stimulus content: specific role of the medial prefrontal cortex in the successful encoding of social pictures.
J. Cogn. Neurosci.,
February 1, 2007;
19(2):
351 - 362.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. Epstein, H. Pan, J. H. Kocsis, Y. Yang, T. Butler, J. Chusid, H. Hochberg, J. Murrough, E. Strohmayer, E. Stern, et al.
Lack of Ventral Striatal Response to Positive Stimuli in Depressed Versus Normal Subjects
Am J Psychiatry,
October 1, 2006;
163(10):
1784 - 1790.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
A. T. Wang, S. S. Lee, M. Sigman, and M. Dapretto
Developmental changes in the neural basis of interpreting communicative intent
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci,
September 1, 2006;
1(2):
107 - 121.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. P. Mitchell, J. Cloutier, M. R. Banaji, and C. N. Macrae
Medial prefrontal dissociations during processing of trait diagnostic and nondiagnostic person information
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci,
June 1, 2006;
1(1):
49 - 55.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. P. Mitchell, M. R. Banaji, and C. N. Macrae
The Link between Social Cognition and Self-referential Thought in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
J. Cogn. Neurosci.,
August 1, 2005;
17(8):
1306 - 1315.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. P. Mitchell, C. S. Dodson, and D. L. Schacter
fMRI Evidence for the Role of Recollection in Suppressing Misattribution Errors: The Illusory Truth Effect
J. Cogn. Neurosci.,
May 1, 2005;
17(5):
800 - 810.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
K. N. Ochsner, K. Knierim, D. H. Ludlow, J. Hanelin, T. Ramachandran, G. Glover, and S. C. Mackey
Reflecting upon Feelings: An fMRI Study of Neural Systems Supporting the Attribution of Emotion to Self and Other
J. Cogn. Neurosci.,
December 1, 2004;
16(10):
1746 - 1772.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|
|