ArticleNeuroImage2020
A role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in self-generated episodic social cognition.
Article in NeuroImage, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Role of the Right Language Network and the Multiple-Demand Network in Verbal Semantics: Insights From an Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis of 561 Functional Neuroimaging Studies.Human brain mapping · 2025Pooled it
- Common thought patterns reflect generosity, fairness, and social context.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- APOE ε4-related structural vulnerability in mild cognitive impairment: a subsystem-based analysis of the default mode network.Research square · 2026Article
- Tinnitus perception is linked to arousal dysfunction.iScience · 2026Article
- Behavioral, experiential, and physiological signatures of mind blanking.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Distinct distributed brain networks dissociate self-generated mental states.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Understanding and reducing delayed dental care for early childhood caries: a structural equation model approach.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Effective engagement in computerized cognitive training for older adults.Ageing research reviews · 2025Review
- Self-reports map the landscape of task states derived from brain imaging.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Examining Specific Theory-of-Mind Aspects in Amnestic and Non-Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Their Relationships with Sleep Duration and Cognitive Planning.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Memory control deficits in the sleep-deprived human brain.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Patterns of ongoing thought in the real world and their links to mental health and well-being.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Electrophysiological signatures of ongoing thoughts during naturalistic behavior.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Gaze-Based Detection of Thoughts across Naturalistic Tasks Using a PSO-Optimized Random Forest Algorithm.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Mendelian randomization analyses reveal causal relationships between brain functional networks and risk of psychiatric disorders.Nature human behaviour · 2024Article
- Changes in Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Default Network Oscillations between 19 and 29 Years of Age.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Hippocampal sharp-wave ripples correlate with periods of naturally occurring self-generated thoughts in humans.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Distinctive and Complementary Roles of Default Mode Network Subsystems in Semantic Cognition.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Altered regional neural activity and functional connectivity in patients with non-communicating hydrocephalus: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The human mind is equally fluent in thoughts that involve self-generated mental content as it is with information in the immediate environment. Previous research has shown that neural systems linked to executive control (i.e. the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) are recruited when perceptual and self-generated thoughts are balanced in line with the demands imposed by the external world. Contemporary theories (Smallwood and Schooler, 2015) assume that differentiable processes are important for self-generated mental content than for its regulation. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with multidimensional experience sampling to address this possibility. We used a task with minimal demands to maximise our power at identifying correlates of self-generated states. Principal component analysis showed consistent patterns of self-generated thought when participants performed the task in either the lab or in the scanner (ICC ranged from 0.68 to 0.86). In a whole brain analyses we found that neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) increases when participants are engaged in experiences which emphasise episodic and socio-cognitive features. Our study suggests that neural activity in the vMPFC is linked to patterns of ongoing thought, particularly those with episodic or social features.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.