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Episodic future thinking following vmPFC damage: Impaired event construction, maintenance, or narration?
Elena Bertossi1, Vanessa Candela2, Flavia De Luca1
1Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universitá di Bologna.
Neuropsychology
|January 6, 2017
Summary
Patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage show impaired episodic future thinking (EFT). This impairment stems from difficulties in generating novel future events, not working memory or narrative construction.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology
Background:
- The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is linked to episodic future thinking (EFT).
- The precise role of the vmPFC in EFT and the contribution of non-episodic factors remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To confirm impaired EFT in patients with vmPFC lesions using a novel task.
- To investigate the influence of narrative construction and working memory on EFT in vmPFC patients.
Main Methods:
- Participants imagined future events using picture cues.
- Tasks involved describing pictures or describing them while maintaining them in working memory.
- Compared performance between vmPFC patients and healthy controls.
Main Results:
- vmPFC patients generated less specific episodic details compared to controls.
- Working memory and narrative description did not fully account for EFT deficits.
- vmPFC damage specifically reduced the proportion of internal details in EFT.
Conclusions:
- EFT deficits in vmPFC patients are not solely due to working memory or narrative issues.
- The findings suggest an upstream impairment in the generation of novel future events.
- This highlights a critical role for the vmPFC in the core process of creating future scenarios.
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