title: Neural coding of assessing another person's knowledge based on nonverbal cues.
abstract: For successful communication, conversational partners need to estimate each other's current knowledge state. Nonverbal facial and bodily cues can reveal relevant information about how confident a speaker is about what they are saying. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we aimed to identify brain regions that encode how confident a speaker is perceived to be. Participants viewed videos of people answering general knowledge questions and judged each respondent's confidence in their answer. Our results suggest a distinct role of two neural networks known to support social inferences, the so-called mentalizing and the mirroring network. While activation in both networks underlies the processing of nonverbal cues, only activity in the mentalizing network, most notably the medial prefrontal cortex and the bilateral temporoparietal junction, is modulated by how confident the respondent is judged to be. Our results support an integrative account of the mirroring and mentalizing network, in which the two systems support each other in aiding pragmatic processing.
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands anna.kuhlen@bccn-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Anna K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Kuhlen
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bogler
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swerts
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10119 Berlin, Germany, and School of Humanities, TiCC Research Center, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: John-Dylan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Haynes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: fMRI; feeling of another’s knowing; mentalizing; mirroring; nonverbal