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Speed read this shit:
http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/e…
Imagine All the People: How the Brain Creates and Uses Personality Models to Predict Behavior
Demis Hassabis1,*,
R. Nathan Spreng2,*⇓,
Andrei A. Rusu3,
Clifford A. Robbins4,
Raymond A. Mar5 and
Daniel L. Schacter4
+ Author Affiliations
1Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK,
2Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA,
3Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
4Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA and
5Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada M3J1P3
Address correspondence to: R.N. Spreng, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Email: nathan.spreng@gmail.com
Abstract
The behaviors of other people are often central to envisioning the future. The ability to accurately predict the thoughts and actions of others is essential for successful social interactions, with far-reaching consequences. Despite its importance, little is known about how the brain represents people in order to predict behavior. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants learned the unique personality of 4 protagonists and imagined how each would behave in different scenarios. The protagonists' personalities were composed of 2 traits: Agreeableness and Extraversion. Which protagonist was being imagined was accurately inferred based solely on activity patterns in the medial prefrontal cortex using multivariate pattern classification, providing novel evidence that brain activity can reveal whom someone is thinking about. Lateral temporal and posterior cingulate cortex discriminated between different degrees of agreeableness and extraversion, respectively. Functional connectivity analysis confirmed that regions associated with trait-processing and individual identities were functionally coupled. Activity during the imagination task, and revealed by functional connectivity, was consistent with the default network. Our results suggest that distinct regions code for personality traits, and that the brain combines these traits to represent individuals. The brain then uses this “personality model” to predict the behavior of others in novel situations.
I believe it is the world's most ingenious troll costume, worn by none other than the inimitable troll himself: William Stephen Bartlesby Worthington Humphrey III, esquire.
Ha.
Fooling no one, motherflower.