Differential involvement of the posterior temporal cortex in mentalizing but not perspective taking.
Understanding and predicting other people's mental states and behavior are important prerequisites for social interactions. The capacity to attribute mental states such as desires, thoughts or intentions to oneself or others is referred to as mentalizing. The right posterior temporal cortex at the temporal-parietal junction has been associated with mentalizing but also with taking someone else's spatial perspective onto the world--possibly an important prerequisite for mentalizing. Here, we directly compared the neural correlates of mentalizing and perspective taking using the same stimulus material. We found significantly increased neural activity in the right posterior segment of the superior temporal sulcus only during mentalizing but not perspective taking. Our data further clarify the role of the posterior temporal cortex in social cognition by showing that it is involved in processing information from socially salient visual cues in situations that require the inference about other people's mental states.
David
Nicole
N
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. ndavid@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Aumann
Carolin
C
Santos
Natacha S
NS
Bewernick
Bettina H
BH
Eickhoff
Simon B
SB
Newen
Albert
A
Shah
N Jon
NJ
Fink
Gereon R
GR
Vogeley
Kai
K
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012938:Social Perception; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult