36x48 vertical poster template

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Corticospinal Excitability During a Perspective
Taking Task Implications for Self vs. Other
Brain Processing Elizabeth Murray1, Karen
Kelly1, Alexander Shepard2, Kandy Bandahar3,
Julian Paul Keenan1 1cognitive neuroimaging
laboratory, montclair state university,
2university of pennsylvania, 3new york university
results
introduction

• For each condition, measures of TMS-induced MEPs
  for filtered and rectified, grand-averaged data
  were analyzed in terms of area under the curve
  (AUC) and peak amplitude using repeated measures
  Analysis of Variance (ANOVAs).
• FOR PEAK AMPLITUDE
• A significant main effect for self/other was
  found F 5.57, p lt .05. A significant
  interaction between hemisphere x condition was
  also found F 6.55, p lt .05.
• FOR AREA UNDER THE CURVE
• A significant main effect was found for
  hemisphere F 6.66, p lt .05 and for the
  self/other condition F 8.029, p lt .05. A
  significant interaction between hemisphere and
  self/other condition was found F 11.63, p lt .05.

One of the most fascinating and widely studied
areas in psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience
is consciousness. Due to the complex and
multifaceted nature of consciousness, it is
common for a particular aspect to be studied
independently, making controlled experimental
manipulation possible. One aspect of
particular interest is the uniquely human ability
to take not only a self-perspective but the
ability to take anothers mental viewpoint, or
other- perspective. This ability to take the
first person perspective (1PP) and third person
perspective (3PP) is a necessary component of
human self consciousness (Vogeley Fink, 2003)
as well as a necessary component of both
self-awareness (SA) and Theory of Mind (ToM). The
1PP plays a valuable role during social cognition
in terms of the benefit of self-analysis and
modification however, its mediating role in
taking the 3PP may be even more valuable. In
order to take the 3PP, one must first be aware of
the self without self-awareness, other-awareness
is not possible. Having the ability to take the
3PP enables humans to cognitively speculate
others mental states and intentions (mental
state-attribution or ToM). The neural activation
during 1PP vs. 3PP is of particular interest
especially in terms of deficiencies in self/other
processing (i.e. autism, schizophrenia, etc.) as
well as, an insights into the neuroevolution of
cognitive function. Although several
neuroimaging studies have attempted to provide a
neural signature of these states, the common
and differential neural substrates involved,
remain elusive.
Area Under the Curve
methods

• Ten adults participants were recruited and
  appropriately screened using TMS safety
  guidelines established by Wasserman (1996, 1998).
  
• Using a paradigm designed by Vogley et al.
  (2004), subjects were asked to take either the
  first-person perspective (1PP) or third person
  perspective (3PP) in identifying the number of
  red balls in a virtual scene.
• Single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
  (TMS) was administered to the motor cortex of
  either the left or right hemisphere 150msec or
  300msec following stimulus presentation. All
  stimulation was delivered at 100 MT.
• Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded
  using three surface electrodes attached to the
  hand, contralateral to the hemisphere stimulated,
  at the abductor pollicus brevis (APB) and the
  belly-tendon montage.

discussion
The results suggest that taking the self
perspective is the default perspective and that
the right hemisphere may be highly specialized
for this default state, the self perspective The
data support past research indicating right
hemisphere advantage for self-related processing.
Future studies may investigate information
transfer between intra-hemisphere structures
during decisions requiring taking first and/or
third person perspective to further study the
co-evolution of these processes. Results from
this study, will further elucidate the neural
pathways involved during perspective taking and
facilitate the understanding of
psychopathological syndromes in which there are
functional deficits of self-awareness and theory
of mind as well as, the neurophysiology of social
cognitive brain processes which rely on such
perspective taking
Peak Amplitude
Average MEPs For All Conditions
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