Minds Made for Sharing: Initiating Joint Attention Recruits Reward-related Neurocircuitry

Abstract

The ability and motivation to share attention is a unique aspect of human cognition. Despite its significance, the neural basis remains elusive. To investigate the neural correlates of joint attention, we developed a novel, interactive research paradigm in which participants' gaze behavior--as measured by an eye tracking device--was used to contingently control the gaze of a computer-animated character. Instructed that the character on screen was controlled by a real person outside the scanner, 21 participants interacted with the virtual other while undergoing fMRI. Experimental variations focused on leading versus following the gaze of the character when fixating one of three objects also shown on the screen. In concordance with our hypotheses, results demonstrate, firstly, that following someone else's gaze to engage in joint attention resulted in activation of anterior portion of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) known to be involved in the supramodal coordination of perceptual and cognitive processes. Secondly, directing someone else's gaze toward an object activated the ventral striatum which--in light of ratings obtained from participants--appears to underlie the hedonic aspects of sharing attention. The data, therefore, support the idea that other-initiated joint attention relies upon recruitment of MPFC previously related to the "meeting of minds." In contrast, self-initiated joint attention leads to a differential increase of neural activity in reward-related brain areas, which might contribute to the uniquely human motivation to engage in the sharing of experiences.

Processing social aspects of human gaze: A combined fMRI-DTI study

“…facial expressions may also modulate the type and magnitude of amygdala responses (Adams et al, 2003;N'Diaye et al, 2009). Recent studies using interactive eye tracking paradigms (Wilms et al, 2010) in which study participants could actively draw the attention of a virtual partner to a certain object in space (Schilbach et al, 2010b) demonstrated increased responses within the medial prefrontal cortex during joint attention. Furthermore, a linear dependency of MPFC activity and gaze duration has been found (Kuzmanovic et al, 2009).…”

Why and how to use virtual reality to study human social interaction: The challenges of exploring a new research landscape

“…By building a VR system which implements mimicry, we can begin to address these questions and test the theory in detail (Hale & Hamilton, 2016). Similarly, theories might suggest that joint attention is implemented in particular brain systems, but testing this required a VR implementation of joint attention (Schilbach et al ., 2010), which requires us to specify the duration of mutual gaze between the participant and VC, the timing of the looks to the object, and the contingencies between these behaviours. Thus, VR requires a precise and well‐specified theory of the psychological processes under investigation.…”

Perceived live interaction modulates the developing social brain

“…interaction may be intrinsically rewarding; Mundy and Neal, 2000;Schilbach et al, 2010;Pfeiffer et al, 2014), one component of successful social interaction is the creation of a shared psychological state between partners (Clark, 1996;Sperber and Wilson, 1996;Tomasello et al, 2005). Consistent with this perspective, recent behavioral (e.g.…”

“…Adult neuroimaging research has begun to identify the neural bases of social interaction (e.g. Redcay et al, 2010;Schilbach et al, 2010;Pö nk€ anen et al, 2011;Pfeiffer et al, 2014;Rice and Redcay, 2016), but few studies have investigated how the developing brain supports social interaction. Understanding the developmental bases of realworld social behaviors will provide insight into both typical and atypical social development, where disorders such as autism and social anxiety are characterized by interpersonal difficulties (e.g.…”

“…Kampe et al, 2003), engage in joint attention (e.g. Schilbach et al, 2010;Redcay et al, 2012), and play games against a human as opposed to a computer (e.g. McCabe et al, 2001;Gallagher et al, 2002;Coricelli and Nagel, 2009).…”