The medial prefrontal cortex mediates social event knowledge

Frank Krueger*, Aron K. Barbey, Jordan Grafman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

165 Scopus citations

Abstract

Accumulating evidence from social neuroscience demonstrates that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a crucial component of the neural systems mediating social event knowledge. Here, we present an integrative theory of the cognitive and neural bases of social event knowledge. The structural and temporal representation binding (STRing) theory assumes that the mPFC represents abstract dynamic summary representations in the form of event simulators (elators). Elators give rise to social event knowledge via binding with regions in the posterior cerebral cortex and limbic structures. We propose a segregation of elator functions along the dorso-ventral mPFC axis and review neuroscience evidence to support the specificity of elators as the underlying structures for the development of event, person and self schemata.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)103-109
Number of pages7
JournalTrends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume13
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2009

Funding

The authors are grateful to Giovanna Zamboni for her help with the illustrations. This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke/Cognitive Neuroscience Section.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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