Glossary
Medial prefrontal cortex
What is the medial prefrontal cortex?
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a brain region involved in self-referential processing, social cognition, value-based decision-making, and the regulation of emotional responses. It is a key node in the default mode network.
How it works
The mPFC is studied in memory, decision-making and emotional responding. Euston and colleagues propose that it learns associations between contexts, events and adaptive responses, with contributions from other memory systems such as the hippocampus. This is one account of its broad involvement, rather than a complete explanation of its function.
Self-reflection and other people
In D’Argembeau and colleagues’ imaging study, participants judged whether a personality trait described themselves or a close friend. They also considered how the friend would answer those questions. Judging oneself and adopting another person’s perspective were associated with different mPFC regions. Thus, asking “Does this describe me?” and “How would my friend see me?” are concrete examples of related tasks, not evidence that the entire mPFC performs one undifferentiated social function.
Applied example
Suppose someone bitten by a dog feels afraid on seeing a neighbor’s calm dog. After repeated uneventful encounters, they may come to expect safety around that particular animal. This hypothetical example describes the experience that safety-learning research seeks to explain; it does not show what changed in this person’s brain.
A laboratory task makes the sequence easier to control: pair a cue with an unpleasant event, then present the cue without that event and measure how responses change. Researchers can examine how mPFC subdivisions, the amygdala, the hippocampus and other regions contribute to learning and using that information. A reduction in fear does not by itself identify one region as its cause, and PTSD cannot be explained as a single failed mPFC switch.
Why it matters
The mPFC is part of wider networks involved in remembering and responding to events. Its activity should be interpreted in relation to the task and the other regions involved.
Evidence note: Euston and colleagues (2012) propose a unifying account rather than a unique function for the mPFC.