Neuronal interactions between mentalising and action systems during indirect request processing

Pupillometry reveals increased pupil size during indirect request comprehension.

Fluctuations in pupil size have been shown to reflect variations in processing demands during lexical and syntactic processing in language comprehension. An issue that has not received attention is whether pupil size also varies due to pragmatic manipulations. In two pupillometry experiments, we investigated whether pupil diameter was sensitive to increased processing demands as a result of com...

Interactions between reward and threat during visual processing.

Appetitive stimuli such as monetary incentives often improve performance whereas aversive stimuli such as task-irrelevant negative stimuli frequently impair performance. But our understanding of how appetitive and aversive processes simultaneously contribute to brain and behavior is rudimentary. In the current fMRI study, we investigated interactions between reward and threat by investigating t...

Advantageous indirect interactions in systems of competition.

Ecological foodwebs display complex networks of species interactions. Here we discuss how two species, whether directly interacting or not, can crucially affect each other 'indirectly' through their mutual associations with intermediary species. A technique is presented for quantifying these "indirect effects", so that a simple measure emerges for the degree of overall harm or advantage that a ...

Dissociation of mirroring and mentalising systems in autism

The role of mirror neuron systems and mentalising systems in causing poor social and communication skills in individuals with autistic spectrum conditions is hotly debated. We studied 18 adults with autistic spectrum conditions in comparison to 19 age and IQ matched typical individuals. Behavioural assessments revealed difficulties in mental state attribution and action comprehension in the aut...

Inner Voice Experiences during Processing of Direct and Indirect Speech