Representation of attitudinal knowledge: role of prefrontal cortex, amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus

It has been proposed that behavior is influenced by representations of different types of knowledge: action representations, event knowledge, attitudes and stereotypes. Attitudes (representations of a concept or object and its emotional evaluation) allow us to respond quickly to a given stimulus. In...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 2005, Vol.43 (2), p.249-259
Main Authors: Wood, Jacqueline N., Romero, Stephen G., Knutson, Kristine M., Grafman, Jordan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Amygdala
Amygdala - physiology
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Attitude
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain
Emotions - physiology
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Knowledge
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Nerve Net - physiology
Parahippocampal Gyrus - physiology
Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social cognition
Social Perception
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Summary:It has been proposed that behavior is influenced by representations of different types of knowledge: action representations, event knowledge, attitudes and stereotypes. Attitudes (representations of a concept or object and its emotional evaluation) allow us to respond quickly to a given stimulus. In this study, we explored the representation and inhibition of attitudes. We show that right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex mediates negative attitudes whereas left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex mediates positive attitudes. Parahippocampal regions and amygdala mediate evaluative processing. Furthermore, anxiety modulates right dorsolateral prefrontal activation during negative attitude processing. Inhibition of negative attitudes activates left orbitofrontal cortex: a region that when damaged is associated with socially inappropriate behavior in patients. Inhibition of positive attitudes activates a brain system involving right inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral anterior cingulate. Thus, we show that there are dissociable networks for the representation and inhibition of attitudes.
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.11.011