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Human temporal-parietal junction spontaneously tracks others' beliefs: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

ABSTRACT: Humans have the unique capacity to actively reflect on the thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge of others, but do we also track mental states spontaneously when observing other people? We asked this question by monitoring brain activity in belief-sensitive cortex using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during free-viewing of social videos. More specifically, we identified a portion of the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) selective for mental state processing using an established, explicit theory of mind task, and then analyzed the brain response in that region of interest (ROI) during free-viewing of video clips involving people producing goal-directed actions. We found a significant increase in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in our rTPJ ROI during free-viewing for all of our test videos. Activity in this region was further modulated by the extent to which the knowledge state, or beliefs, of the protagonist regarding the location of an object contrasted with the reality of where the object was hidden. Open-ended questioning suggested our participants were not explicitly focusing on belief states of the characters during free-viewing. Further analyses ruled out lower-level details of the video clips or general attentional differences between conditions as likely explanations for the results. As such, these results call into question the traditional characterization of theory of mind as a resource intensive, deliberate process, and, instead, support an emerging view of theory of mind as a foundation for, rather than the pinnacle of, human social cognition.

SUBMITTER: Hyde DC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6869111 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Human temporal-parietal junction spontaneously tracks others' beliefs: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Hyde Daniel C DC Aparicio Betancourt Mariana M Simon Charline E CE

Human brain mapping 20150914 12

Humans have the unique capacity to actively reflect on the thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge of others, but do we also track mental states spontaneously when observing other people? We asked this question by monitoring brain activity in belief-sensitive cortex using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during free-viewing of social videos. More specifically, we identified a portion of the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) selective for mental state processing using an established, ...[more]

PMID: 26368326

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Project description:BackgroundCerebral hypoperfusion may aggravate neurological damage after cardiac arrest. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) provides information on cerebral oxygenation but its relevance during post-resuscitation care is undefined. We investigated whether cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) measured with NIRS correlates with the serum concentration of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a marker of neurological injury, and with clinical outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients.MethodsWe performed a post hoc analysis of a randomised clinical trial (COMACARE, NCT02698917) comparing two different levels of carbon dioxide, oxygen and arterial pressure after resuscitation from OHCA with ventricular fibrillation as the initial rhythm. We measured rSO2 in 118 OHCA patients with NIRS during the first 36 h of intensive care. We determined the NSE concentrations from serum samples at 48 h after cardiac arrest and assessed neurological outcome with the Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) scale at 6 months. We evaluated the association between rSO2 and serum NSE concentrations and the association between rSO2 and good (CPC 1-2) and poor (CPC 3-5) neurological outcome.ResultsThe median (inter-quartile range (IQR)) NSE concentration at 48 h was 17.5 (13.4-25.0) μg/l in patients with good neurological outcome and 35.2 (22.6-95.8) μg/l in those with poor outcome, p < 0.001. We found no significant correlation between median rSO2 and NSE at 48 h, rs = - 0.08, p = 0.392. The median (IQR) rSO2 during the first 36 h of intensive care was 70.0% (63.5-77.0%) in patients with good outcome and 71.8% (63.3-74.0%) in patients with poor outcome, p = 0.943. There was no significant association between rSO2 over time and neurological outcome. In a binary logistic regression model, rSO2 was not a statistically significant predictor of good neurological outcome (odds ratio 0.99, 95% confidence interval 0.94-1.04, p = 0.635).ConclusionsWe found no association between cerebral oxygenation measured with NIRS and NSE concentrations or outcome in patients resuscitated from OHCA.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02698917 . Registered on 26 January 2016.

Dataset Information

Human temporal-parietal junction spontaneously tracks others' beliefs: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Publications

Human temporal-parietal junction spontaneously tracks others' beliefs: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

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