The influence of TMS of the rTPJ on attentional control and mentalizing

Abstract

Mentalizing is the powerful cognitive ability to understand others. By attributing mental states to others, we become able to explain and predict their behavior. The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) plays a key role in processing models of mental states. Yet, a different line of research suggests that the rTPJ is crucially involved in attentional control, prompting debates on its cognitive function. In this pre-registered neuro-navigated event-related TMS study, we tested for the rTPJ's specificity in mentalizing and attentional control. We interfered with its activity in a recently developed spatial cueing paradigm in which another's mental states were apparently task-relevant, allowing direct comparison of TMS effects on attention and mentalizing. We contrasted effects with a nearby control TMS site. Our confirmatory analysis showed no evidence for an involvement of the rTPJ in mentalizing or attentional control, presumably due to an observed large inter-individual variability of TMS effects on context and validity. To follow up this finding, we conducted exploratory analyses which revealed that rTPJ TMS had an influence on both attentional control and mentalizing. TMS effects on attention and mentalizing co-varied across participants: participants responding most to rTPJ TMS on mentalizing were also those for whom rTPJ TMS increased the attentional effect the most. This provides further evidence against total absolute segregation between mentalizing and attention within the rTPJ. Rather, our results suggest a common cognitive mechanism in both domains for which the rTPJ is necessary, paving the way for future research to cross-validate and extend these findings.