The DOI matches its Crossref record; 84 of the 84 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Two Takes on the Social Brain: A Comparison of Theory of Mind Tasks
Abstract
We compared two tasks that are widely used in research on mentalizing—false belief stories and animations of rigid geometric shapes that depict social interactions—to investigate whether the neural systems that mediate the representation of others' mental states are consistent across these tasks. Whereas false belief stories activated primarily the anterior paracingulate cortex (APC), the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/PC), and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)—components of the distributed neural system for theory of mind (ToM)—the social animations activated an extensive region along nearly the full extent of the superior temporal sulcus, including a locus in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), as well as the frontal operculum and inferior parietal lobule (IPL)—components of the distributed neural system for action understanding—and the fusiform gyrus. These results suggest that the representation of covert mental states that may predict behavior and the representation of intentions that are implied by perceived actions involve distinct neural systems. These results show that the TPJ and the pSTS play dissociable roles in mentalizing and are parts of different distributed neural systems. Because the social animations do not depict articulated body movements, these results also highlight that the perception of the kinematics of actions is not necessary to activate the mirror neuron system, suggesting that this system plays a general role in the representation of intentions and goals of actions. Furthermore, these results suggest that the fusiform gyrus plays a general role in the representation of visual stimuli that signify agency, independent of visual form.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
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?
In the citing paper
“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.”
From Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction (2016) · cites this paper as Gobbini et al. 2007
In the citing paper
“Indeed, in Gobbini et al. (2007), rTPJ activations to false belief stories were only present at a lower threshold of P < 0.01.”
From Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction (2016) · cites this paper as Gobbini et al. 2007
In the citing paper
“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).”
From Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction (2016) · cites this paper as Gobbini et al. 2007
In the citing paper
“In particular, the right TPJ (RTPJ) shows increased metabolic activity whenever participants read about a person's beliefs in nonmoral (5–8) and moral (9) contexts.”
From Disruption of the right temporoparietal junction with transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces the role of beliefs in moral judgments (2010) · cites this paper as [5]
Citations
Cites
Brainard, D. H. (1997) · Spatial Vision · doi:10.1163/156856897x00357 · Cited by 20,012
The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: transforming numbers into movies
Pelli, D. G. (1997) · Spatial Vision · doi:10.1163/156856897x00366 · Cited by 11,110
The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception
Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.17-11-04302.1997 · Cited by 7,738
Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230 · Cited by 7,433
Action recognition in the premotor cortex
Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/119.2.593 · Cited by 4,968
The distributed human neural system for face perception
Haxby, J. V., Hoffman, E. A., & Gobbini, M. I. (2000) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01482-0 · Cited by 4,891
Self-citationBerti, A. (1992) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(92)90076-x · Cited by 4,190
The reorienting system of the human brain: from environment to theory of mind
Corbetta, M., Patel, G., & Shulman, G. L. (2008) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.04.017 · Cited by 3,889
Meeting of minds: the medial frontal cortex and social cognition
Amodio, D. M., & Frith, C. D. (2006) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn1884 · Cited by 3,782 · cited 6×
“…previous attempts to distinguish the roles played by different subregions of these areas relied on comparisons between published studies (e.g., Amodio & Frith, 2006; a notable exception is the recent study by Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006), we compared the loci of activation for two…”
BackgroundResultInfluentialUnderstanding motor events: a neurophysiological study
di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/bf00230027 · Cited by 3,539
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Montgomery K. J., 2003, Program, 10
- 10.1207/s15516709cog0401_3 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 401–436 of 436
Inomata, T., & Shimada, S. (2020) · Psychology · doi:10.4236/psych.2020.1110100
Bio, B. J., Guterstam, A., Pinsk, M. A., Wilterson, A. I., & Graziano, M. S. A. (2021) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2021.06.10.447930
Nánay, B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.003.0003
Neural substrates for moral judgments of psychological versus physical harmPreprint
Tsoi, L., Dungan, J. A., Chakroff, A., & Young, L. (2017) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/g9he3
Nánay, B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.003.0001
Wilczynski, W., & Brosnan, S. F. (2021) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108671187.007
Nánay, B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.003.0002
(2014) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-420071-5.16001-6
Nánay, B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.003.0004
Wagner, D. D. (2015) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-397025-1.00169-x
Nánay, B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.003.0006
A shared neural code for the physics of actions and object eventsPreprint
Akbıyık, S., Caramazza, A., & Wurm, M. F. (2022) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2022.11.19.517091
Dopamine challenge reduces mental state attribution accuracyPreprint
Schuster, B. A., Sowden, S., Rybicki, A. J., Fraser, D. S., Press, C., Hickman, L., Holland, P., & Cook, J. L. (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2023.07.21.550065
Cortical face processing systems
Yovel, G., Duchaine, B., & Freiwald, W. A. (2024) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-820480-1.00084-x
Neural Correlates of Perceiving Animacy in Robotic ObjectsPreprint
Yizhar, O., Maimon, A., Tal, Z., Wald, I. Y., Erel, H., Friedman, D. A., Zuckerman, O., & Amedi, A. (2024) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4464597/v1
Neural Correlates of Perceiving Animacy in Robotic ObjectsPreprint
Yizhar, O., Maimon, A., Tal, Z., Wald, I. Y., Erel, H., Friedman, D. A., Zuckerman, O., & Amedi, A. (2024) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4464597/v2
A quantitative comparison of atlas parcellations on the human superior temporal sulcus
Hackney, B. C., Pyles, J. A., & Grossman, E. D. (2024) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2024.149119
(2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.002.0003
(2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695379.002.0004
Pradeep, A. K., Acharya, A., Chakravarty, R., & Dev, R. (2024) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781394310371.ref
A network of face patches in human prefrontal cortex for social processing of facesPreprint
Farahani, A., Izadkhah, M., Hamidi, R., Yargholi, E., Hossein‐Zadeh, G., & Rajimehr, R. (2025) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2025.05.05.652210
The Animacy Continuum in the Human Ventral Vision Pathway
Sha, L., Abdi, H., Guntupalli, J. S., Halchenko, Y. O., Connolly, A. C., Haxby, J. V. L., & Oosterhof, N. N. (2014) · Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento)
Self-citationMerchant, J. S., Glaros, S., Edakoth, E., Harris, R., Tchangalova, N., & Redcay, E. (2025) · University Libraries (University of Maryland) · doi:10.13016/vjkt-mvyr
Samonek, K., Basol, E. Z., Estrada, S., Davydovska, T., Funaro, M. C., & Harpaz‐Rotem, I. (2026) · Chronic Stress · doi:10.1177/24705470261427216
Moreau, N. (2015) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/a7613071ze510z43d2z9da9za07753710845
Laillier, R. (2019) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/f3f3322dz8127z47daz997fz61e5af74e307
Gavrilova, E., Novoselova, K., Myachykov, A., & Юрьевич, Ш. Ю. (2026) · Research in Neurodiversity · doi:10.1016/j.rin.2026.100023
Peng, M., Huang, L., & Smith, D. M. (2026) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2026.104917
Aggression in epilepsy and sleep: from historical accounts to brain networks and human behaviour
Villani, F., Mattioli, P., Bartoloméi, F., Gyimesi, J., Mula, M., & Nobili, L. (2026) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awag212
Gender powers perception of “dancing circles in love”
Naamnih, L., Sokolov, A. N., Fallgatter, A. J., & Pavlova, M. A. (2026) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhag092
A sibling to all: Reversed neural pattern of social affiliation in extraordinary altruists
Roseman-Shalem, M., Dienstag, A., Khalaileh, A., & Arzy, S. (2026) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106696
Action features dominate cortical representation during natural vision
Jung, H., Jain, H., Han, X., Feilong, M., Han, J., Shokeen, D., Uden, C. V., Hanson, I., Connolly, A. C., Wager, T. D., et al. (2026) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2625018123
Self-citationNeurobiology of social and individual choice
Wright, N. D. (2011) · UCL Discovery (University College London)
Neural correlates of human action perception: motor, semantic and social aspects
Riva, F. (2013) · BOA (University of Milano-Bicocca)
Metadata
- Authors
- Gobbini, M. I., Koralek, A. C., Bryan, R. E., Montgomery, K. J., & Haxby, J. V.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2007-11-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1803-1814
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2138293491
- Cited by
- 436
- References
- 84
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 29 · 2013: 44 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 35.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
- Iris (University of Trento) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- theory of mind, mentalization, social animation, temporoparietal junction, posterior superior temporal sulcus, posterior cingulate cortex, fusiform gyrus, mirror neuron system, action understanding, intention understanding, agency perception, neural dissociation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Cognition, Concept Formation, Evoked Potentials, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Psychological Theory, Social Behavior, Social Perception
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
