TY - JOUR
T1 - Patients with ventromedial prefrontal lesions show an implicit approach bias to angry faces
AU - Buades-Rotger, Macià
AU - Solbakk, Anne Kristin
AU - Liebrand, Matthias
AU - Endestad, Tor
AU - Funderud, Ingrid
AU - Siegwardt, Paul
AU - Enter, Dorien
AU - Roelofs, Karin
AU - Krämer, Ulrike M.
AU - Scales, Clinical
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the German Science Foundation (grant number KR3691/5-1). M. B.-R. was supported by a German Science Foundation stipend (grant number BU 3756/1-1). A.-K. S., T. E., and I. F. were supported by the Research Council of Norway through a grant (project number 240389) and through the Centres of Excellence scheme (project number 262762 RITMO). K. R. was supported by a VICI grant (no. 453-12-001) from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and a consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC_CoG-2017_772337).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, MIT Press Journals. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - Damage to the ventromedial PFC (VMPFC) can cause maladap-tive social behavior, but the cognitive processes underlying these behavioral changes are still uncertain. Here, we tested whether patients with acquired VMPFC lesions show altered approach– avoidance tendencies to emotional facial expressions. Thirteen patients with focal VMPFC lesions and 31 age-and gender-matched healthy controls performed an implicit approach– avoidance task in which they either pushed or pulled a joystick depending on stimulus color. Whereas controls avoided angry faces, VMPFC patients displayed an incongruent response pattern characterized by both increased approach and reduced avoidance of angry facial expressions. The approach bias was stronger in patients with higher self-reported impulsivity and disinhibition and in those with larger lesions. We further used linear ballistic accumulator modeling to investigate latent parameters underlying approach–avoidance decisions. Controls displayed negative drift rates when approaching angry faces, whereas VMPFC lesions abolished this pattern. In addition, VMPFC patients had weaker response drifts than controls during avoidance. Finally, patients showed reduced drift rate variability and shorter nondecision times, indicating impulsive and rigid decision-making. Our findings thus suggest that VMPFC damage alters the pace of evidence accumulation in response to social signals, eliminating a default, protective avoi-dant bias and facilitating a dysfunctional approach behavior.
AB - Damage to the ventromedial PFC (VMPFC) can cause maladap-tive social behavior, but the cognitive processes underlying these behavioral changes are still uncertain. Here, we tested whether patients with acquired VMPFC lesions show altered approach– avoidance tendencies to emotional facial expressions. Thirteen patients with focal VMPFC lesions and 31 age-and gender-matched healthy controls performed an implicit approach– avoidance task in which they either pushed or pulled a joystick depending on stimulus color. Whereas controls avoided angry faces, VMPFC patients displayed an incongruent response pattern characterized by both increased approach and reduced avoidance of angry facial expressions. The approach bias was stronger in patients with higher self-reported impulsivity and disinhibition and in those with larger lesions. We further used linear ballistic accumulator modeling to investigate latent parameters underlying approach–avoidance decisions. Controls displayed negative drift rates when approaching angry faces, whereas VMPFC lesions abolished this pattern. In addition, VMPFC patients had weaker response drifts than controls during avoidance. Finally, patients showed reduced drift rate variability and shorter nondecision times, indicating impulsive and rigid decision-making. Our findings thus suggest that VMPFC damage alters the pace of evidence accumulation in response to social signals, eliminating a default, protective avoi-dant bias and facilitating a dysfunctional approach behavior.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110467993&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1162/jocn_a_01706
DO - 10.1162/jocn_a_01706
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 34428788
AN - SCOPUS:85110467993
SN - 0898-929X
VL - 33
SP - 1069
EP - 1081
JO - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
IS - 6
ER -