The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been implicated in a variety of social, cognitive, and affective functions that are commonly disrupted in mental illness. In this review, we summarize data from a diverse array of human and animal studies demonstrating that the vmPFC is a key node of cortical and subcortical networks that subserve at least three broad domains of psychological function linked to psychopathology. One track of research indicates that the vmPFC is critical for the representation of reward- and value-based decision making, through interactions with the ventral striatum and amygdala. A second track of research demonstrates that the vmPFC is critical for the generation and regulation of negative emotion, through its interactions with the amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, periaqueductal gray, hippocampus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. A third track of research shows the importance of the vmPFC in multiple aspects of social cognition, such as facial emotion recognition, theory-of-mind ability, and processing self-relevant information, through its interactions with the posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, dorsomedial PFC, and amygdala. We then present meta-analytic data revealing distinct subregions within the vmPFC that correspond to each of these three functions, as well as the associations between these subregions and specific psychiatric disorders (depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, addiction, social anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). We conclude by describing several translational possibilities for clinical studies of vmPFC-based circuits, including neuropsychological assessment of transdiagnostic functions, anatomical targets for intervention, predictors of treatment response, markers of treatment efficacy, and subtyping within disorders.

中文翻译：

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腹内侧前额叶皮层在情绪、决策、社会认知和精神病理学中的多方面作用

腹内侧前额叶皮层 (vmPFC) 与各种社交、认知和情感功能有关，这些功能通常在精神疾病中被破坏。在这篇综述中，我们总结了来自各种人类和动物研究的数据，证明 vmPFC 是皮层和皮层下网络的关键节点，至少支持与精神病理学相关的三个广泛的心理功能领域。一项研究表明，vmPFC 通过与腹侧纹状体和杏仁核的相互作用，对于基于奖励和价值的决策的表现至关重要。第二项研究表明，vmPFC 通过与杏仁核、终纹床核、导水管周围灰质、海马、和背侧前扣带回皮层。第三项研究表明 vmPFC 在社会认知的多个方面的重要性，例如面部情绪识别、心理理论能力和处理自我相关信息，通过与后扣带皮层、楔前叶、背内侧的相互作用PFC 和杏仁核。然后，我们提供元分析数据，揭示 vmPFC 内与这三个功能中的每一个相对应的不同子区域，以及这些子区域与特定精神疾病（抑郁症、创伤后应激障碍、成瘾、社交焦虑症、双相情感障碍、精神分裂症和注意力缺陷/多动障碍）。我们最后描述了基于 vmPFC 的电路临床研究的几种转化可能性，