title: Conversational Interaction in the Scanner: Mentalizing during Language Processing as Revealed by MEG.
abstract: Humans are especially good at taking another's perspective-representing what others might be thinking or experiencing. This "mentalizing" capacity is apparent in everyday human interactions and conversations. We investigated its neural basis using magnetoencephalography. We focused on whether mentalizing was engaged spontaneously and routinely to understand an utterance's meaning or largely on-demand, to restore "common ground" when expectations were violated. Participants conversed with 1 of 2 confederate speakers and established tacit agreements about objects' names. In a subsequent "test" phase, some of these agreements were violated by either the same or a different speaker. Our analysis of the neural processing of test phase utterances revealed recruitment of neural circuits associated with language (temporal cortex), episodic memory (e.g., medial temporal lobe), and mentalizing (temporo-parietal junction and ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Theta oscillations (3-7 Hz) were modulated most prominently, and we observed phase coupling between functionally distinct neural circuits. The episodic memory and language circuits were recruited in anticipation of upcoming referring expressions, suggesting that context-sensitive predictions were spontaneously generated. In contrast, the mentalizing areas were recruited on-demand, as a means for detecting and resolving perceived pragmatic anomalies, with little evidence they were activated to make partner-specific predictions about upcoming linguistic utterances.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bögels
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Dale J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Barr
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garrod
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK Aston Brain Centre, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kessler
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003142:Communication; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013334:Students; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D014495:Universities
keywords: conversational interaction; episodic working memory; magnetoencephalography; perspective taking; pragmatics; theory of mind