Humans use forward thinking to exploit social controllability.
Elife
; 102021 10 29.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34711304
ABSTRACT
The controllability of our social environment has a profound impact on our behavior and mental health. Nevertheless, neurocomputational mechanisms underlying social controllability remain elusive. Here, 48 participants performed a task where their current choices either did (Controllable), or did not (Uncontrollable), influence partners' future proposals. Computational modeling revealed that people engaged a mental model of forward thinking (FT; i.e., calculating the downstream effects of current actions) to estimate social controllability in both Controllable and Uncontrollable conditions. A large-scale online replication study (n=1342) supported this finding. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (n=48), we further demonstrated that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) computed the projected total values of current actions during forward planning, supporting the neural realization of the forward-thinking model. These findings demonstrate that humans use vmPFC-dependent FT to estimate and exploit social controllability, expanding the role of this neurocomputational mechanism beyond spatial and cognitive contexts.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Pensamiento
/
Corteza Prefrontal
/
Interacción Social
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article