The role of the right temporoparietal junction in social interaction: how low-level computational processes contribute to meta-cognition.
Accumulating evidence from cognitive neuroscience indicates that the right inferior parietal cortex, at the junction with the posterior temporal cortex, plays a critical role in various aspects of social cognition such as theory of mind and empathy. With a quantitative meta-analysis of 70 functional neuroimaging studies, the authors demonstrate that this area is also engaged in lower-level (bottom-up) computational processes associated with the sense of agency and reorienting attention to salient stimuli. It is argued that this domain-general computational mechanism is crucial for higher level social cognitive processing.
Decety
Jean
J
Department of Psychology, and Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. decety@uchicago.edu
Lamm
Claus
C
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*
D010100:Oxygen