Theory of mind, language and the temporoparietal junction mystery.
Brain imaging of adults during false-belief story tasks consistently shows activation of the temporoparietal junction in English-speaking Americans and German-speaking Europeans. Kobayashi et al. find this observation in adult English speakers but not in English-speaking children or in English-Japanese bilingual persons. This finding suggests a cultural or linguistic influence on location of brain function and argues against maturation of innately specified neural substrates. It is reminiscent of effects of linguistic development, bilingualism and cultural differences on theory of mind development.
Perner
Josef
J
University of Salzburg and Center for Neurocognitive Research, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria. josef.perner@sbg.ac.at
Aichhorn
Markus
M
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D019303:Multilingualism; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D012931:Social Environment; D012945:Social Values; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*