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The social brain?

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Frith, Chris D·2007·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rstb.2006.2003PMC PMC1919402
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Abstract

The notion that there is a ‘social brain’ in humans specialized for social interactions has received considerable support from brain imaging and, to a lesser extent, from lesion studies. Specific roles for the various components of the social brain are beginning to emerge. For example, the amygdala attaches emotional value to faces, enabling us to recognize expressions such as fear and trustworthiness, while the posterior superior temporal sulcus predicts the end point of the complex trajectories created when agents act upon the world. It has proved more difficult to assign a role to medial prefrontal cortex, which is consistently activated when people think about mental states. I suggest that this region may have a special role in the second-order representations needed for communicative acts when we have to represent someone else's representation of our own mental state. These cognitive processes are not specifically social, since they can be applied in other domains. However, these cognitive processes have been driven to ever higher levels of sophistication by the complexities of social interaction.

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  • This cortical midline system is less bodily based, processes information about the self and others in more abstract and symbolic ways, and appears to be mainly shaped across development by interpersonal relationships.

    “This system is less bodily based, and processes information about the self and others in more abstract and symbolic ways (Frith, 2007; Uddin et al., 2007). Importantly, unlike the frontoparietal system, it appears to be mainly shaped across development by interpersonal relationships.”

    From A developmental, mentalization-based approach to the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder (2009) · cites this paper as Frith, 2007

    Section 6(d) describes medial prefrontal cortex as handling communicative intentions through representations of another person's mental state, supporting the claim about abstract processing of self and others. The paper does not establish the cited comparison that this system is less bodily based. The separate sentence about being shaped across development by interpersonal relationships has no Frith citation; section 7(c) discusses evolutionary pressures from social living, not that developmental claim. No page numbers were available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • The dmPFC is activated when inferring the mental states of others, when reflecting on knowledge of another's traits, and when reflecting on the traits of oneself.

    “In contrast, dmPFC is activated in multiple conditions: when inferring the mental states of others, when reflecting on knowledge of another's traits, and when reflecting on the traits of oneself (Frith 2007).”

    From Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing? (2014) · cites this paper as Frith 2007

    Section 6(b) says that mentalizing, judging another person’s dispositions, and judging one’s own dispositions all elicit MPFC activity. But the paper attributes this three-task pattern to MPFC, not specifically to dorsal MPFC (dmPFC); section 6(c) describes the associated activity as anterior rostral MPFC. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The ATC is involved in applying social knowledge and processing social scripts.

    “A combination of lesion, nonhuman primate, and fMRI studies has prompted researchers to theorize the involvement of the ATC in applying social knowledge (Olson et al. 2013) and processing social scripts (Frith 2007, Frith & Frith 2003).”

    From Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing? (2014) · cites this paper as Frith 2007

  • There exists a network of brain regions consistently involved in social cognitive processes.

    “Although this idea remains contentious, there exists a network of brain regions consistently involved in social cognitive processes (Adolphs 2009, Frith 2007).”

    From Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing? (2014) · cites this paper as Frith 2007

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Frith, C. D.
Affiliations
UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (GB)
Corresponding author
Frith, Chris D
ORCID
Frith, Chris D
Venue
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
2007-01-24
Volume
362
Issue
1480
Pages
671-678
ISSN
  • 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
  • 1471-2970
DOI
10.1098/rstb.2006.2003
PMC
PMC1919402
OpenAlex
W2165470935
Cited by
690
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 70 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 51 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 48
FWCI
4.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust
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 brain, social cognition, amygdala, face perception, facial emotion recognition, posterior superior temporal sulcus, mentalization, medial prefrontal cortex, theory of mind, communicative acts, social interaction, cognitive evolution
MeSH terms
Brain, Cognition, Emotions, Humans, Intelligence, Interpersonal Relations, Thinking

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