Decreased activation in left prefrontal cortex during role-play: An fNIRS study of the psychodrama sociocognitive model

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.