Functional lateralization of temporoparietal junction – imitation inhibition, visual perspective‐taking and theory of mind

Abstract

Although neuroimaging studies have consistently identified the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) as a key brain region involved in social cognition, the literature is far from consistent with respect to lateralization of function. For example, during theory‐of‐mind tasks bilateral TPJ activation is found in some studies but only right hemisphere activation in others. Visual perspective‐taking and imitation inhibition, which have been argued to recruit the same socio‐cognitive processes as theory of mind, are associated with unilateral activation of either left TPJ (perspective taking) or right TPJ (imitation inhibition). The present study investigated the functional lateralization of TPJ involvement in the above three socio‐cognitive abilities using transcranial direct current stimulation. Three groups of healthy adults received anodal stimulation over right TPJ, left TPJ or the occipital cortex prior to performing three tasks (imitation inhibition, visual perspective‐taking and theory of mind). In contrast to the extant neuroimaging literature, our results suggest bilateral TPJ involvement in imitation inhibition and visual perspective‐taking, while no effect of anodal stimulation was observed on theory of mind. The discrepancy between these findings and those obtained using neuroimaging highlight the efficacy of neurostimulation as a complementary methodological tool in cognitive neuroscience.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Temporoparietal Junction and Inferior Frontal Cortex Improves Imitation-Inhibition and Perspective-Taking with no Effect on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient Score

“…Thus, anodal tDCS was applied to the right TPJ or IFC in the current study. The stimulation sites for the IFC and TPJ were FC6 (Holland et al, 2011; Hogeveen et al, 2015) and CP6 (Santiesteban et al, 2012a, 2015; Hogeveen et al, 2015), respectively. The reference electrode was placed horizontally over the vertex, individually measured, and then the vertex at 50% of the distance between the preauricular points, crossing a point 50% of the distance between the inion and nasion, was marked.…”

“…However, there was an increase in face touching (imitation) during a social interaction task in the individuals who received anodal tDCS to the right IFC. Santiesteban et al (2015) performed anodal tDCS on the right or left TPJ and reported a significant decrease in the interference effect of the inhibition of imitation, regardless of whether the right or left TPJ was stimulated. They also reported that accuracy during the visual perspective-taking task increased significantly, regardless of the side of the TPJ that was stimulated.…”

Gender differences in cognitive Theory of Mind revealed by transcranial direct current stimulation on medial prefrontal cortex

“…Brain stimulation techniques have confirmed that ToM could be considered a multidimensional construct, and that different brain regions are differentially recruited during cognitive and affective ToM tasks21222324. To the best of our knowledge, to date, only two studies applied brain stimulation to investigate gender differences in the social cognitive domain2526.…”

The attribution of animacy and agency in frontotemporal dementia versus Alzheimer's disease

“…Additional adjacent areas may participate in animacy attribution. The temporoparietal junction, particularly on the left, is heavily involved in the ability to take the visual perspective of others (Santiesteban, Banissy, Catmur, & Bird, 2015; Schurz, Aichhorn, Martin, & Perner, 2013). Two other adjacent areas not shown in this study but previously implicated for animacy detection, the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and the fusiform gyrus (FG) (Gao et al, 2012; Hillebrandt, Friston, & Blakemore, 2014; Lee et al, 2014; Schultz, Friston, O’Doherty, Wolpert, & Frith, 2005; Shultz, van den Honert, Engell, & McCarthy, 2015; Shultz & McCarthy, 2014), are involved in biological motion detection and mostly likely part of the agency complex (Castelli et al, 2000; Gobbini et al, 2011; Grèzes et al, 2001).…”