Paying Attention to Social Meaning: An fMRI Study
Abstract
Animations of simple geometric shapes are readily interpreted as animate agents engaged in meaningful social interactions. Such animations have been shown to activate brain regions implicated in the detection of animate motion, in understanding the intentions of others as well as areas commonly linked to the processing of social and emotional information. However, attribution of animacy does not occur under all circumstances and the precise conditions under which specific regions are activated remains unclear. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study we manipulated viewers' perspective to assess the part played by selective attention. Participants were cued to attend either to spatial properties of the movements or to the kind of social behavior it could represent. Activations that occurred to the initial cue, while observing the animations themselves and while responding to a postpresentation probe, were analyzed separately. Results showed that activity in the social brain network was strongly influenced by selective attention, and that remarkably similar activations were seen during film viewing and in response to probe questions. Our use of stimuli supporting rich and diverse social narratives likely enhanced the influence of top-down processes on neural activity in the social brain.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The pSTS is involved in intention processing.
“These findings suggest that the pSTS is involved in intention processing”
From Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction (2016) · cites this paper as Tavares et al. 2008
Cites
On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism
Epley, N., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2007) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.114.4.864 · Cited by 4,069 · cited 2× · see citing works
“For example, Martin and Tversky (2003) have shown that healthy individuals, on initial exposure interpret Heider--Simmel animations as involving mechanical rather than intentional movements (see Epley et al. 2007 for review).”
BackgroundAn Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior
Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1416950 · Cited by 3,340 · see citing works
Buckner, R. L., & Carroll, D. C. (2007) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.004 · Cited by 2,691 · see citing works
Activity in Right Temporo-Parietal Junction is Not Selective for Theory-of-Mind
Mitchell, J. P. (2008) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm051 · Cited by 469 · cited 1× · see citing works
“An important topic for future research will be to determine whether activity in ‘‘social’’ brain regions is specific to social stimuli, or could be similarly active for certain nonsocial stimuli (Mitchell 2007).”
BackgroundThe amygdala, social behavior, and danger detection
AMARAL, D. G. (2003) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1280.015 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
Amygdala damage impairs emotional memory for gist but not details of complex stimuli
Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Buchanan, T. W. (2005) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1413 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
The Human Hippocampus: Cognitive Maps or Relational Memory?
Kumaran, D., & Maguire, E. A. (2005) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1103-05.2005 · Cited by 218 · see citing works
Downing, P. E., Wiggett, A. J., & Peelen, M. V. (2007) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3619-06.2007 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
The Kuleshov Effect: the influence of contextual framing on emotional attributions
Mobbs, D., Weiskopf, N., Lau, H. C., Featherstone, E., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2006) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsl014 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Fractionating theory of mind: a meta-analysis of functional brain imaging studies
Schurz, M., Radua, J., Aichhorn, M., Richlan, F., & Perner, J. (2014) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.01.009 · Cited by 1,656 · see citing works
Understanding others' actions and goals by mirror and mentalizing systems: a meta-analysis
Van Overwalle, F., & Baetens, K. (2009) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.009 · Cited by 1,329 · see citing works
The brain's default network and its adaptive role in internal mentation
Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2012) · The Neuroscientist · doi:10.1177/1073858411403316 · Cited by 1,114 · see citing works
Social cognitive deficits and their neural correlates in progressive supranuclear palsy
Ghosh, B. C. P., Calder, A. J., Peers, P. V., Lawrence, A. D., Acosta-Cabronero, J., Pereira, J. M., Hodges, J. R., & Rowe, J. B. (2012) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/aws128 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Self-citationLythe, K. E., Moll, J., Gethin, J. A., Workman, C. I., Green, S., Lambon Ralph, M. A., Deakin, J. F. W., & Zahn, R. (2015) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1813 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Beta- and gamma-band activity reflect predictive coding in the processing of causal events
van Pelt, S., Heil, L., Kwisthout, J., Ondobaka, S., van Rooij, I., & Bekkering, H. (2016) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsw017 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction
Lee, S. M., & McCarthy, G. (2016) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhu292 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Torabian, S., & Grossman, E. D. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1168739 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Tavares, P., Lawrence, A. D., & Barnard, P. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (GB)
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-12-07
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1876-1885
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W2101373987
- Cited by
- 81
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 5.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- social meaning, selective attention, social brain network, perspective taking, top-down processing, social narratives, film viewing
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Brain, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Photic Stimulation, Social Perception, Comprehension
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
