Asp et al. Neural correlates of credulity by balanced cognitive processes (Gilbert, 1991). Belief is ﬁrst, easy, inexorable with comprehension of any cognition, and substan- tiated by representations in the post-rolandic cortex. Disbelief is retroactive, difﬁcult, vulnerable to disruption, and mediated by the vmPFC. This asymmetry in the process of belief and doubt sug- gests that false doctrines in the “marketplace of ideas” (Mill, 1975) may not be as benign as is often assumed (Gilbert et al., 1993). Indeed, normal individuals are prone to misleading information, propaganda, fraud, and deception (Zuckerman et al., 1981; Gilbert, 1991), especially in situations where their cognitive resources are depleted. In our theory, the more effortful process of disbelief (to items initially believed) is mediated by the vmPFC; which, in old age, tends to disproportionally lose structural integrity and associated functionality. 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(1981). “Verbal and nonverbal communication of decep- tion,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, ed. L. Berkowitz (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 1–59. Conﬂict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any com- mercial or ﬁnancial relationships that could be construed as a potential con- ﬂict of interest. Received: 05 January 2012; accepted: 18 June 2012; published online: 09 July 2012. Citation: Asp E, Manzel K, Koestner B, Cole CA, Denburg NL and Tranel D (2012) A neuropsychological test of belief and doubt: damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex increases credulity for misleading advertising. Front. Neurosci. 6:100. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2012.00100 This article was submitted to Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience, a specialty of Frontiers in Neuroscience. Copyright © 2012 Asp, Manzel, Koest- ner , Cole, Denburg and Tranel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attri- bution License, which permits use, distri- bution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copy- right notices concerning any third-party graphics etc. July 2012 | Volume 6 | Article 100 | 9