Common Premotor Regions for the Perception and Production of Prosody and Correlations with Empathy and Prosodic Ability

Background: Prosody, the melody and intonation of speech, involves the rhythm, rate, pitch and voice quality to relay linguistic and emotional information from one individual to another. A significant component of human social communication depends upon interpreting and responding to another person’s prosodic tone as well as one’s own ability to produce prosodic speech. However there has been little work on whether the perception and production of prosody share common neural processes, and if so, how these might correlate with individual differences in social ability. Methods: The aim of the present study was to determine the degree to which perception and production of prosody rely on shared neural systems. Using fMRI, neural activity during perception and production of a meaningless phrase in different prosodic intonations was measured. Regions of overlap for production and perception of prosody were found in premotor regions, in particular the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Activity in these regions was further found to correlate with how high an individual scored on two different measures of affective empathy as well as a measure on prosodic production ability. Conclusions: These data indicate, for the first time, that areas that are important for prosody production may also be utilized for prosody perception, as well as other aspects of social communication and social understanding, such as aspect

Default Network Deactivations Are Correlated with Psychopathic Personality Traits

Background: The posteromedial cortex (PMC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are part of a network of brain regions that has been found to exhibit decreased activity during goal-oriented tasks. This network is thought to support a baseline of brain activity, and is commonly referred to as the ‘‘default network’’. Although recent reports suggest that the PMC and mPFC are associated with affective, social, and self-referential processes, the relationship between these default network components and personality traits, especially those pertaining to social context, is poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Findings: In the current investigation, we assessed the relationship between PMC and mPFC deactivations and psychopathic personality traits using fMRI and a self-report measure. We found that PMC deactivations predicted traits related to egocentricity and mPFC deactivations predicted traits related to decision-making. Conclusions/Significance: These results suggest that the PMC and mPFC are associated with processes involving selfrelevancy and affective decision-making, consistent with previous reports. More generally, these findings suggest a link between default network activity and personality traits

Correlation Matrix of Default Network ROIs and Other PPI-R Subscales.

<p>SOI: Social Infuence.</p><p>C: Coldheartedness.</p><p>F: Fearlessness.</p><p>BE: Blame Externalization.</p><p>RN: Rebellious Nonconformity.</p><p>STI: Stress Immunity.</p><p>No correlations were found at p<0.05. * indicates p<0.1.</p

Correlation Matrix of ROIs and PPI-R Measures.

<p>*p<0.05.</p

Correlations between task-related deactivations and PPI-R subscale scores.

<p>Scatterplots of PMC deactivations and ME scores are shown in the top panel, and scatterplots of mPFC deactivations and CN scores are shown in the bottom panel. Least-squares regression lines are plotted to highlight the relationships between amounts of deactivation and scores on trait scales.</p

Posteromedial and medial prefrontal regions of interest.

<p>The ROIs corresponded to the respective peak voxels of the PMC and mPFC clusters in the contrast (Rest – Speech). The PMC ROI was defined at [0, -48, 24] and the mPFC ROI was defined at [0, 38, -8], in MNI coordinates. ROIs are overlaid onto an averaged anatomical image constructed from the anatomical scans of five representative participants.</p