Distinct Regions of Right Temporo-Parietal Junction Are Selective for Theory of Mind and Exogenous Attention

Jonathan Scholz,Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli,Emery N Brown,Rebecca Saxe,Christina Triantafyllou,Jan Lauwereyns

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004869

Jonathan Scholz, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004869

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Abstract

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, a cortical region in the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ) is recruited when participants read stories about people's thoughts (‘Theory of Mind’). Both fMRI and lesion studies suggest that a region near the RTPJ is associated with attentional reorienting in response to an unexpected stimulus. Do Theory of Mind and attentional reorienting recruit a single population of neurons, or are there two neighboring but distinct neural populations in the RTPJ? One recent study compared these activations, and found evidence consistent with a single common region. However, the apparent overlap may have been due to the low resolution of the previous technique. We tested this hypothesis using a high-resolution protocol, within-subjects analyses, and more powerful statistical methods. Strict conjunction analyses revealed that the area of overlap was small and on the periphery of each activation. In addition, a bootstrap analysis identified a reliable 6–10 mm spatial displacement between the peak activations of the two tasks; the same magnitude and direction of displacement was observed in within-subjects comparisons. In all, these results suggest that there are neighboring but distinct regions within the RTPJ implicated in Theory of Mind and orienting attention.

Highlights

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, a cortical region in the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ) is recruited when participants read stories about people’s thoughts, relative to controls for logical and attentional demands [1,2]
FMRI Results Consistent with previous results, random effects group analyses revealed regions near the right temporo-parietal junction recruited during the Theory of Mind task (Belief.Photo, peak voxel: 60 256 32 (MNI), cluster size: 320 voxels (2.56 cm3) at p,0.001, peak T = 7.5) and the spatial attention task (Invalid.Valid, peak voxel: 58 262 42, cluster size: 16 voxels (0.13 cm3) at p,0.001, peak T = 5.9, Figure 2a)
The specific question at the center of this paper is whether one common neural substrate near the RTPJ is recruited both during the Theory of Mind and exogenous attention tasks

Summary

Introduction

In fMRI studies, a cortical region in the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ) is recruited when participants read stories about people’s thoughts, relative to controls for logical and attentional demands [1,2]. The blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response in this region is significantly higher when participants read about false beliefs than during closely-matched stories about false maps or signs [3], and is specific to thinking about thoughts relative to other social information [4,5,6]. Both fMRI and lesion studies suggest that a region near the RTPJ is involved in attentional reorienting. Damage to RTPJ is the most common cause of left hemifield spatial neglect [10,11]

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