Decreased activation in left prefrontal cortex during role-play: An fNIRS study of the psychodrama sociocognitive model
Mengyu Lim, Alessandro Carollo, Andrea Bizzego, Shen‐Hsing Annabel Chen, Gianluca Esposito · The Arts in Psychotherapy · 2023
Despite widespread implementation of psychodrama, no empirical studies investigated neural mechanisms of its techniques. One gap lies in the sociocognitive model of role reversal (RR) which posits three processes: empathic role-taking, behavioural reproduction and role feedback. Related studies found deactivations in prefrontal cortex (PFC) during acting tasks, implicating inhibited self-related cognition. However, contrasting studies found PFC activations during role-taking, citing blurred boundaries between self and other that is characteristic of empathy. This study employs fNIRS to uncover neurophysiological correlates of the three processes. Three conditions (Naturalistic Conversation - NC, Role-Play - RP, Role Reversal - RR) were designed to introduce empathic role-taking and behavioural reproduction, and role feedback in transitions from NC to RP, and RP to RR respectively. 41 non-clinical adult dyads underwent all conditions. First-level General Linear Model from fNIRS signals was based on participants’ role-related utterances and compared across conditions. Anterior left PFC activity decreased as participants produced role-related utterances during RP compared to NC, implying lowered recruitment of self-referential networks during empathic role-taking and behavioural reproduction, partially supporting patterns of brain activation that can be mapped to specific sociocognitive processes in RR. Findings partially support the involvement of self-referential networks in specific sociocognitive processes in RR.