Biomedical subjects

Jane F Banfield

Publications and source records attributed to Jane F Banfield.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Juicy fruit and creepy crawlies: an electrophysiological study of the implicit Go/NoGo association task.

The Go/NoGo association task (GNAT) has been used in behavioral studies to measure the strength of association between different category groups and two poles of an evaluative dimension. However, reaction time data do not provide information about the neural time course of such associative information. We investigated event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited when participants were required to respond (Go) or withhold a response (NoGo) according to task instructions. Task instructions paired words from one of two taxonomic categories (fruit/bugs) with either pole of an evaluative dimension (good/bad). Within a given run, Go responses were assigned to one of the categories and one evaluative dimension. ERPs showed an increased negativity over frontal sites to NoGo as compared to Go responses. Moreover, NoGo minus Go difference waves showed that the N200 effect was delayed in trials within incongruent blocks (e.g., "Press if a bug word or a good word") as compared to trials within congruent blocks (e.g., "Press if a bug word or a bad word"). These results suggest that such associative attitude information is available at a very early stage of processing, less than 250 ms after seeing a fruit or a bug word. This finding is further discussed with respect to alternative explanations of the behavioral effect.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Medial prefrontal activity predicts memory for self.

The ability to remember the past depends on cognitive operations that are recruited when information is initially encountered. In the current experiment, we investigated neural processes that subserve the memorability of a fundamental class of social information: self-knowledge. Participants evaluated the extent to which a series of personality characteristics were self-descriptive. Brain activation was measured using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and contrasted based on: (i) whether each word was later remembered or forgotten; and (ii) whether or not each item was judged to be self-relevant. Results revealed that activity in medial prefrontal cortex predicted both subsequent memory performance and judgements of self-relevance. These findings extend current understanding of the nature and functioning of human memory.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

From facial cue to dinner for two: the neural substrates of personal choice.

The current experiment examined the neural substrates of response selection, comparing conditions that required participants to make criterion-free selections from sets of same-sex faces (i.e., inconsequential decision) to choosing a dinner date from opposite-sex faces (i.e., consequential decision). In each of these tasks, either a single face (i.e., no choice) or two or three faces (i.e., free choice) appeared for selection. The results revealed that regions of dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and parietal cortex bilaterally, as well as an area along the medial surface of the superior frontal gyrus, were activated by both consequential and inconsequential decisions, thereby providing evidence for a common selection network. Consequential decisions were further indexed by activation of the insula/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 47) and the paracingulate gyrus (BA 32). The implications of these findings for current accounts of response selection and social-cognitive functioning are considered.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Thinking about actions: the neural substrates of person knowledge.

Despite an extensive literature on the neural substrates of semantic knowledge, how person-related information is represented in the brain has yet to be elucidated. Accordingly, in the present study we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of person knowledge. Focusing on the neural substrates of action knowledge, participants reported whether or not a common set of behaviors could be performed by people or dogs. While dogs and people are capable of performing many of the same actions (e.g. run, sit, bite), we surmised that the representation of this knowledge would be associated with distinct patterns of neural activity. Specifically, person judgments were expected to activate cortical areas associated with theory of mind (ToM) reasoning. The results supported this prediction. Whereas action-related judgments about dogs were associated with activity in various regions, including the occipital and parahippocampal gyri; identical judgments about people yielded activity in areas of prefrontal cortex, notably the right middle and medial frontal gyri. These findings suggest that person knowledge may be functionally dissociable from comparable information about other animals, with action-related judgments about people recruiting neural activity that is indicative of ToM reasoning.

Adolescent↗