IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-44870-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neural representations of situations and mental states are composed of sums of representations of the actions they afford

Author

Listed:
  • Mark A. Thornton

    (Dartmouth College)

  • Diana I. Tamir

    (Princeton University
    Princeton University)

Abstract

Human behavior depends on both internal and external factors. Internally, people’s mental states motivate and govern their behavior. Externally, one’s situation constrains which actions are appropriate or possible. To predict others’ behavior, one must understand the influences of mental states and situations on actions. On this basis, we hypothesize that people represent situations and states in terms of associated actions. To test this, we use functional neuroimaging to estimate neural activity patterns associated with situations, mental states, and actions. We compute sums of the action patterns, weighted by how often each action occurs in each situation and state. We find that these summed action patterns reconstructed the corresponding situation and state patterns. These results suggest that neural representations of situations and mental states are composed of sums of their action affordances. Summed action representations thus offer a biological mechanism by which people can predict actions given internal and external factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark A. Thornton & Diana I. Tamir, 2024. "Neural representations of situations and mental states are composed of sums of representations of the actions they afford," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-44870-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44870-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44870-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-44870-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark A. Thornton & Miriam E. Weaverdyck & Judith N. Mildner & Diana I. Tamir, 2019. "People represent their own mental states more distinctly than those of others," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Mark A. Thornton & Miriam E. Weaverdyck & Diana I. Tamir, 2019. "The brain represents people as the mental states they habitually experience," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marc Lochbaum & Elisabeth Stoner & Tristen Hefner & Sydney Cooper & Andrew M Lane & Peter C Terry, 2022. "Sport psychology and performance meta-analyses: A systematic review of the literature," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Skinner-Dorkenoo, Allison L. & Sarmal, Apoorva & Rogbeer, Kasheena G. & André, Chloe J. & Patel, Bhumi & Cha, Leah, 2022. "Highlighting COVID-19 racial disparities can reduce support for safety precautions among White U.S. residents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-44870-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.