Abstract
Anthropomorphism encompasses the attribution of human characteristics to non-living objects. In particular the human tendency to see faces in cars has long been noticed, yet its neural correlates are unknown. We set out to investigate whether the fusiform face area (FFA) is associated with seeing human features in car fronts, or whether, the higher-level theory of mind network (ToM), namely temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) show a link to anthropomorphism. Twenty participants underwent fMRI scanning during a passive car-front viewing task. We extracted brain activity from FFA, TPJ and MPFC. After the fMRI session participants were asked to spontaneously list adjectives that characterize each car front. Five raters judged the degree to which each adjective can be applied as a characteristic of human beings. By means of linear mixed models we found that the implicit tendency to anthropomorphize individual car fronts predicts FFA, but not TPJ or MPFC activity. The results point to an important role of FFA in the phenomenon of ascribing human attributes to non-living objects. Interestingly, brain regions that have been associated with thinking about beliefs and mental states of others (TPJ, MPFC) do not seem to be related to anthropomorphism of car fronts.
Highlights
In daily life it is fairly common that people see human elements in non-human objects: we see faces in clouds, give names to our cars, or scold malfunctioning computers
The results indicate that anthropomorphism does contribute significantly to the prediction of brain activity in bilateral fusiform face area (FFA) during car processing, but not in the theory of mind network (ToM) networks (Figs. 2 and 3)
Our results demonstrate an association between neural activation in bilateral FFA, the face-sensitive brain region within the fusiform gyrus, while viewing car fronts and the tendency of participants to characterize the same car fronts with adjectives that apply to humans
Summary
In daily life it is fairly common that people see human elements in non-human objects: we see faces in clouds, give names to our cars, or scold malfunctioning computers. Neuroimaging research targeting so-called theory of mind (ToM) reasoning has provided extensive evidence suggesting that a consistent set of brain regions is recruited when participants are required to reason about other people. This brain network ( termed the ‘‘social brain network’’) includes the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), the bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), the superior temporal sulcus and the temporal poles [8,9,10,11]. We set out to address the question of whether brain areas involved in face perception or ToM processing are activated when seeing cars depending on the degree of anthropomorphism of the specific car seen
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