 A study of patients with lesions in the right vmPFC showed a loss of empathy and theory of mind, showing that the brain regions is directly involved in empathy and mentalizing.The capacity for mature defense mechanisms such as intellectualization, compensation, reaction formation, and isolation has been tied to proper functioning of the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex, while more primitive defense mechanisms such as projection, splitting, verbal denial, and fantasy have been found to rely on other regions, primarily in the left hemisphere
.One particularly notable theory of vmPFC function is the somatic marker hypothesis, accredited to António Damásio.