Temporo-parietal junction activity in theory-of-mind tasks: falseness, beliefs, or attention
Abstract
By combining the false belief (FB) and photo (PH) vignettes to identify theory-of-mind areas with the false sign (FS) vignettes, we re-establish the functional asymmetry between the left and right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). The right TPJ (TPJ-R) is specially sensitive to processing belief information, whereas the left TPJ (TPJ-L) is equally responsible for FBs as well as FSs. Measuring BOLD at two time points in each vignette, at the time the FB-inducing information (or lack of information) is presented and at the time the test question is processed, made clear that the FB is processed spontaneously as soon as the relevant information is presented and not on demand for answering the question in contrast to extant behavioral data. Finally, a fourth, true belief vignette (TB) required teleological reasoning, that is, prediction of a rational action without any doubts being raised about the adequacy of the actor's information about reality. Activation by this vignette supported claims that the TPJ-R is activated by TBs as well as FBs.
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Right TPJ has been proposed to play a role in managing divided attention and non-ToM-based perspective switching.
“Along with ToM, right TPJ has been proposed to play a role in managing divided attention and non–ToM-based perspective switching (Mitchell, 2008; Aichhorn et al., 2009), although there is debate as to whether these functions are subserved by the same or separable components of the TPJ (Scholz et al., 2009).”
From The brain's conversation with itself: neural substrates of dialogic inner speech (2016) · cites this paper as Aichhorn et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Aichhorn, M., Perner, J., Weiss, B., Kronbichler, M., Staffen, W., & Ladurner, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Salzburg (AT)
- Paracelsus Medical University (AT)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2009-06-01
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1179-1192
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2152388672
- Cited by
- 190
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 17.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- theory of mind, temporoparietal junction, false belief, hemispheric lateralization, teleological reasoning, social cognition, functional MRI
- MeSH terms
- Carbamide Peroxide, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attention, Brain Mapping, Culture, Drug Combinations, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Pathways, Neuropsychological Tests, Parietal Lobe, Peroxides, Reality Testing, Temporal Lobe, Time Factors, Urea, Confidence Intervals, Young Adult
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