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Cited by 53Action Observation and SynchronizationNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesFace Recognition and Perception

Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction

Open access
Lee, Su Mei, McCarthy, Gregory·2016·Cerebral Cortex
DOI 10.1093/cercor/bhu292PMC PMC4737605
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Abstract

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is engaged by tasks that manipulate biological motion processing, Theory of Mind attributions, and attention reorienting. The proximity of activations elicited by these tasks raises the question of whether these tasks share common cognitive component processes that are subserved by common neural substrates. Here, we used high-resolution whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging in a within-subjects design to determine whether these tasks activate common regions of the rTPJ. Each participant was presented with the 3 tasks in the same imaging session. In a whole-brain analysis, we found that only the right and left TPJs were activated by all 3 tasks. Multivoxel pattern analysis revealed that the regions of overlap could still discriminate the 3 tasks. Notably, we found significant cross-task classification in the right TPJ, which suggests a shared neural process between the 3 tasks. Taken together, these results support prior studies that have indicated functional heterogeneity within the rTPJ but also suggest a convergence of function within a region of overlap. These results also call for further investigation into the nature of the function subserved in this overlap region.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/cercor/bhu292

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

26 of 43 cited sources checked · 17 supported · 1 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

  • Premiseown data

    Our finding of overlapping activations in the TPJ stands in contrast to some previous studies that did not find overlapping activations when comparing Biological Motion and Theory of Mind tasks, or Theory of Mind and Attention-Reorienting tasks.

    “Our finding of overlapping activations in the TPJ stands in contrast to some previous studies that did not find overlapping activations when comparing Biological Motion and Theory of Mind tasks (Gobbini et al. 2007;Saxe et al. 2009), or Theory of Mind and Attention-Reorienting tasks (Scholz et al. 2009).”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim2 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Gobbini et al. 2007 source
    • cites Saxe et al. 2009 source
    • cites Scholz et al. 2009 source

      Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 0 partially supported, 2 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

      Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Premisecitation

    Saxe et al. (2009) did not find any overlap between Theory of Mind and biological motion activations in the pSTS when both tasks were run in the same children.

    “Saxe et al. (2009) also did not find any overlap between Theory of Mind and biological motion activations in the pSTS when both these tasks were run in the same children.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Saxe et al. 2009 source
  • Premisecitation

    Deen and McCarthy (2010) found that the same pSTS region that responded to biological motion was activated more strongly when participants read Theory of Mind stories with strong biological motion imagery compared with those without such imagery.

    “Interestingly, Deen and McCarthy (2010) also found that the same pSTS region that responded to biological motion was activated more strongly when participants read Theory of Mind stories with strong biological motion imagery compared with those without such imagery.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Deen and McCarthy 2010 source

      The Results (Stories with and without biological motion) report that right pSTS responded more strongly to stories with biological motion than to stories without it, and that this region overlapped with the region responsive to visually perceived biological motion. However, the Introduction says the stories were only analogous to theory-of-mind vignettes, and the Discussion (pSTS Response to Stories with Human Motion) explicitly says the authors did not run a theory-of-mind task. The study varied descriptions of human motion, not measured strength of biological-motion imagery. (LLM, conf=0.90)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Premisecitation

    Mitchell (2008) found that Theory of Mind stories and an attention-reorienting task both engaged a common region in the TPJ.

    “Mitchell (2008) presented participants with Theory of Mind stories and an attention-reorienting (i.e., Posner cueing) task and found that both tasks engaged a common region in the TPJ.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Mitchell 2008 source
  • Premisecitation

    The Biological Motion task also engaged regions associated with motion, body form, and face processing.

    “For example, the Biological Motion task also engaged regions associated with motion, body form, and face processing (Engell and McCarthy 2013)”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Engell and McCarthy 2013 source
  • May combine two claims. 13
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. 27

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    The rTPJ is functionally heterogeneous, having been associated with attention, memory, language, and social cognition.

    “Recent meta-analytical and review articles have highlighted the functional heterogeneity of the rTPJ, which has been associated with such disparate cognitive processes such as attention, memory, language, and social cognition (Cabeza et al. 2012;Carter and Huettel 2013).”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim2 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Cabeza et al. 2012 source
    • cites Carter and Huettel 2013 source

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Attention-reorienting activations have been reported to activate superior and anterior regions of the rTPJ.

    “attention-reorienting activations have been reported to activate superior and anterior regions of the rTPJ”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Decety and Lamm 2007 source
    • cites Carter and Huettel 2013 source

      The ‘Broader Explanations for TPJ’s role in Social Cognition’ section reports that attention-reorienting tasks activate the TPJ and that reorienting activation peaks fall in the supramarginal gyrus, rather than the inferior angular gyrus. Our copy does not explicitly locate those activation peaks in both the superior and anterior regions of the right TPJ; its reference to anterior TPJ concerns lesions associated with spatial neglect, not reorienting activations. (LLM, conf=0.78)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation

    Theory of Mind tasks have been reported to activate superior and posterior regions of the rTPJ.

    “Theory of Mind tasks have been reported to activate superior and posterior regions of the rTPJ”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Decety and Lamm 2007 source
    • cites Carter and Huettel 2013 source

      The Social Function in the TPJ section links theory of mind to activation in the angular gyrus within the right TPJ region. However, Broader Explanations for TPJ’s Role in Social Cognition places theory-of-mind activation peaks largely in the inferior angular gyrus, not a superior region. The claimed superior location is therefore not supported. (LLM, conf=0.86)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Interpretationcitation

    Contextual updating, as proposed by Geng and Vossel (2013), could be one such process.

    “Contextual updating, as proposed by Geng and Vossel (2013), could be one such process.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Geng and Vossel 2013 source

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation

    The application of contextual updating to attention reorienting and Theory of Mind was proposed in Geng and Vossel's review.

    “The application of contextual updating to attention reorienting and Theory of Mind was proposed in their review.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Geng and Vossel 2013 source

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Biological motion activations have been reported to activate ventral portions of the rTPJ.

    “Biological motion activations have been reported to activate ventral portions of the rTPJ”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Decety and Lamm 2007 source
    • cites Carter and Huettel 2013 source

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    The angular gyrus subsection of the TPJ is also implicated in semantic and episodic memory processes.

    “Likewise, the angular gyrus subsection of the TPJ is also implicated in semantic and episodic memory processes (Binder and Desai 2011;Shimamura 2011).”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim2 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Binder and Desai 2011 source

      The inferior parietal cortex passage identifies the angular gyrus (AG) with semantic-memory processing. The discussion of social cognition and declarative memory retrieval says that much of the broader semantic network is implicated in episodic-memory retrieval, but does not specifically identify the AG in that finding. (LLM, conf=0.82)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
    • cites Shimamura 2011 source

      In “Theoretical approaches to the role of the PPC in episodic retrieval” (page unavailable), the paper says recollection-related activity is centered in the angular gyrus, supporting its implication in episodic memory. The copy does not specifically link the angular gyrus to semantic memory processes; its mention of semantic retrieval concerns left-hemisphere effects more generally. It also lists the angular gyrus and TPJ separately within ventral posterior parietal cortex rather than calling the angular gyrus a TPJ subsection. (LLM, conf=0.85)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    Cabeza et al. (2011;2012) have proposed that the ventral parietal cortex could have an overarching function, but it has subregions that, through different functional connectivity, apply the function to different types of information according to different goals.

    “Indeed, Cabeza et al. (2011;2012) have also proposed that the ventral parietal cortex could have an overarching function, but it has subregions that, through different functional connectivity, apply the function to different types of information according to different goals.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim2 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Cabeza et al. 2011 source

      Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
    • cites Cabeza et al. 2012 source

  • May combine two claims.

    Findingown data

    Two regions were commonly activated by all 3 tasks: the right TPJ, extending posteriorly into lateral occipital cortex, and the left TPJ, also extending posteriorly into lateral occipital cortex and anteriorly into the supramarginal gyrus.

    “Two regions were commonly activated by all 3 tasks: the right TPJ, extending posteriorly into lateral occipital cortex, and the left TPJ, also extending posteriorly into lateral occipital cortex and anteriorly into the supramarginal gyrus (Fig. 1D, in white).”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

    Premisenone given

    Most prior studies have not directly compared different tasks in the same participants.

    “most prior studies have not directly compared different tasks in the same participants.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisereasoning

    Evidence concerning task activation overlap in the TPJ is inconclusive.

    “As we review later, the evidence concerning task activation overlap in the TPJ is inconclusive.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Study design and conductreasoning

    All participants completed 3 runs of each task.

    “However, all participants completed 3 runs of each task.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Interpretationreasoning

    The task-specific pattern of activity could be reflecting this difference.

    “The task-specific pattern of activity could be reflecting this difference.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable).

    Premisereasoning

    Task activation overlap is at least suggestive of a common neural function.

    “Nevertheless, task activation overlap is at least suggestive of a common neural function”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Interpretationreasoning

    Every frame in the dynamic display can therefore be used to update the model.

    “Every frame in the dynamic display can therefore be used to update the model.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationown data

    Results of the cross-participant classification analyses suggest that the spatial pattern of activation by each task is spatially consistent across participants in the right TPJ, but not so in the left TPJ.

    “Results of the cross-participant classification analyses suggest that the spatial pattern of activation by each task is spatially consistent across participants in the right TPJ, but not so in the left TPJ, which had a bias toward classifying tasks as the Biological Motion task.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationown data

    The most discriminative feature of attention reorienting may also play a role in biological motion processing and Theory of Mind, whereas the most discriminative feature of biological motion processing may not necessarily play a role in attention reorienting.

    “This suggests that whereas the most discriminative feature of attention reorienting may also play a role in biological motion processing (and Theory of Mind), the most discriminative feature of biological motion processing may not necessarily play a role in attention reorienting.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based). May combine two claims.

    Premisereasoning

    Point-light displays of human figures are coherent and therefore provide an internal model of expected movements and actions.

    “Point-light displays of human figures are coherent and therefore provide an internal model of expected movements and actions.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Study design and conductown data

    A leave-one-subject-out crossvalidation scheme was used in the cross-participant classification analysis.

    “A leave-one-subject-out crossvalidation scheme was used.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

    Study design and conductreasoning

    Due to a technical error, the stimulus timing files were corrupted for 1 participant, so the report is based on data from 19 subjects.

    “Due to a technical error, the stimulus timing files were corrupted for 1 participant and so this report is based on data from 19 subjects.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    Gobbini et al. (2007) reported overlapping regions of activation in the pSTS to biological motion and to social animations, but did not find activations in this overlap region to Theory of Mind stories.

    “Gobbini et al. (2007) presented participants with Theory of Mind stories, social animations of geometric shapes (Heider and Simmel 1944), and biological motion.They reported overlapping regions of activation in the pSTS to biological motion and to social animations, but did not find activations in this overlap region to Theory of Mind stories.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Gobbini et al. 2007 source

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning

    Scrambled displays, by virtue of being random, arguably offer the observer no internal model for which to update, and therefore, the process of updating is less engaged.

    “Scrambled displays, by virtue of being random, arguably offer the observer no internal model for which to update, and therefore, the process of updating is less engaged.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Study design and conductown data

    One of the 19 participants was excluded from the within-participant classification analysis because the timing file for 1 Theory of Mind run was corrupted.

    “One of the 19 participants was excluded from this analysis because the timing file for 1 Theory of Mind run was corrupted for this participant.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Study design and conductcitation

    Group-level significance was assessed using permutation testing at the participant-level and bootstrap sampling at the group level.

    “Group-level significance was assessed using permutation testing at the participant-level and bootstrap sampling at the group level (Stelzer et al. 2013).”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Stelzer et al. 2013 source

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisereasoning

    The absence of overlap renders interpretation of common neural function moot.

    “whereas the absence of overlap renders such an interpretation moot.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Actions that violate the observer's expectations often result in greater activity in the TPJ.

    “many studies have shown that actions that violate the observer's expectations often result in greater activity in the TPJ.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 3 sources checked
    • cites Pelphrey et al. 2003 source
    • cites Pelphrey et al. 2004

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites Saxe et al. 2004 source

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisenone given

    In Theory of Mind tasks, observers have to update contextual representations reflecting their own perspective of the current situation to that reflecting the other person's perspective.

    “In Theory of Mind tasks, observers have to update contextual representations reflecting their own perspective of the current situation to that reflecting the other person's perspective.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Study design and conductown data

    An empirical null distribution was obtained by performing the classification analysis on 1000 permutations of the data labels to assess significance of classification accuracies.

    “To assess the significance of classification accuracies, an empirical null distribution was also obtained by performing the classification analysis on 1000 permutations of the data labels.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Premisereasoning

    Attention reorienting involves violation of expectations and thus requires stimulus response mappings and expectations to be updated.

    “Specifically, attention reorienting involves violation of expectations and thus requires stimulus response mappings and expectations to be updated.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationown data

    A classifier trained on the Theory of Mind task performed successful discrimination on the Attention-Reorienting task, providing further support for shared neural processes between these 2 tasks.

    “We also found that a classifier trained on the Theory of Mind task performed successful discrimination on the Attention-Reorienting task, providing further support for shared neural processes between these 2 tasks, as has been proposed in the literature.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Interpretationreasoning

    It is possible that the region of overlap in the TPJ was functionally connected with regions in these different networks during the different tasks.

    “It is possible, therefore, that the region of overlap in the TPJ was functionally connected with regions in these different networks during the different tasks.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisenone given

    The tasks contrasted in this study are only a subset of tasks that reportedly engage the rTPJ.

    “The tasks contrasted in this study are only a subset of tasks that reportedly engage the rTPJ.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Premisereasoning

    A voxel would have had to survive a conjoint probability of P < 10^-6 to be considered a voxel of overlap from 2 activation maps, which may be an overly stringent criterion.

    “Moreover, a voxel would have had to survive a conjoint probability of P < 10 -6 to be considered a voxel of overlap from 2 activation maps, which may be an overly stringent criterion.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
33 of 33

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Biological motion processing, Theory of Mind, and attention-reorienting tasks reliably activate the rTPJ.

    “Biological motion processing, Theory of Mind, and attention-reorienting tasks have been reliably shown to activate the rTPJ, which raises the question of whether these 3 seemingly disparate tasks engage common neural substrates.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Overlapping activations could merely be attributed to downstream venous drainage or smoothing.

    “since overlapping activations could merely be attributed to downstream venous drainage or smoothing”
2 of 2

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?

  • rTPJ is involved in both social and non-social processes, making it a functionally heterogenous region.

    “Second, rTPJ is involved in both social and non-social processes, which makes it a functionally heterogenous region (Corbetta et al., 2008;Krall et al., 2015Krall et al., , 2016;;Lee & McCarthy, 2016;Schuwerk et al., 2017).”

    From The inhibition of automatic imitation: a meta-analysis and synthesis of fMRI studies (2018) · cites this paper as Lee & McCarthy, 2016

Statistics recomputed

Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.

  • Consistentt(18) = 0.44reported p = .667 · recomputed p = .665

    “t(18) = 0.44, p = .667”

  • Consistentt(18) = 4.54reported p < .001 · recomputed p < .001

    “t(18) = 4.54, p < .001”

2 of 2

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Self-check results appear here once an independent check has confirmed them.

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Related

Authors
Lee, S. M., & McCarthy, G.
Affiliations
Yale University (US)
Corresponding author
Lee, Su Mei
Venue
Cerebral Cortex
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2014-12-04
Volume
26
Issue
3
Pages
1108-1116
ISSN
  • 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2199
DOI
10.1093/cercor/bhu292
PMC
PMC4737605
OpenAlex
W2035241320
Semantic Scholar
30bdb63db852a78dcbc9955ab56c1a83a0bae989
Cited by
51
References
52
Citations by year
2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3
FWCI
7.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Yale University
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Faculty of Arts and Sciences
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH-005286, R01MH005286)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
Keywords
right temporoparietal junction, functional heterogeneity, functional convergence, theory of mind, multi-voxel pattern analysis, shared neural substrates, within-subjects design
MeSH terms
Attention, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motion Perception, Neuropsychological Tests, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Young Adult, Theory of Mind

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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.

Claims read by deepseek-v4.1-flash under definition version 3 (extract-v3) on 2026-10-11.

Classified by jev-1.13-20260917 (gold-guideline-v0.2) on 2026-10-11.

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Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

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