苏黎世大学Christian C. Ruff小组取得一项新突破。他们提出了自适应心理化的神经特征。这一研究成果发表在2026年3月9日出版的国际学术期刊《自然—神经科学》上。

虽然之前的神经科学研究主要集中在静态心智化策略上，但研究小组对大脑如何在任何给定时刻自适应地选择策略知之甚少。

在这里，该团队通过计算建模和功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）在互动战略游戏中研究心智化的核心方面。该团队发现，尽管存在相当大的个体差异，但大多数参与者都能根据对手不断变化的复杂程度调整自己的策略。基于模型的功能磁共振成像分析确定了一个分布式的大脑网络，在这个网络中，活动和连接跟踪着这种心智化-信念适应。人们在多大程度上更新了他们对他人复杂程度的看法，这可以从神经活动的样本中预测出来，从而提供适应性心理化的神经特征。他们的模型阐明了心智化能力的神经基础，并提供了一种在健康和临床人群中评估这些能力的方法。

据了解，心智化，即推断他人的情绪和意图，对人类的社会互动至关重要，在各种脑部疾病中都受到损害。

附：英文原文

Title: A neural signature of adaptive mentalization

Author: Buergi, Niklas, Aydogan, Gkhan, Konovalov, Arkady, Ruff, Christian C.

Issue&Volume: 2026-03-09

Abstract: Mentalization, inferring others’ emotions and intentions, is crucial for human social interactions and is impaired in various brain disorders. While previous neuroscience research has focused on static mentalization strategies, we know little about how the brain adaptively selects which strategies to use at any given moment. Here we investigate this core aspect of mentalization with computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during interactive strategic games. We find that most participants can adapt their strategies to the changing sophistication of their opponents, though there are considerable individual differences. Model-based fMRI analyses identify a distributed brain network in which activity and connectivity track this mentalization-belief adaptation. The extent to which people update their beliefs about others’ sophistication can be predicted out of sample from neural activity, providing a neural signature of adaptive mentalization. Our model elucidates the neural basis of mentalization ability and provides a method for assessing these capabilities in healthy and clinical populations.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02219-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02219-x