Connectivity-Based Subdivisions of the Human Right "Temporoparietal Junction Area": Evidence for Different Areas Participating in Different Cortical Networks

Abstract

Controversy surrounds the role of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) area of the human brain. Although TPJ has been implicated both in reorienting of attention and social cognition, it is still unclear whether these functions have the same neural basis. Indeed, whether TPJ is a precisely identifiable cortical region or a cluster of subregions with separate functions is still a matter of debate. Here, we examined the structural and functional connectivity of TPJ, testing whether TPJ is a unitary area with a heterogeneous functional connectivity profile or a conglomerate of regions with distinctive connectivity. Diffusion-weighted imaging tractrography-based parcellation identified 3 separate regions in TPJ. Resting-state functional connectivity was then used to establish which cortical networks each of these subregions participates in. A dorsal cluster in the middle part of the inferior parietal lobule showed resting-state functional connectivity with, among other areas, lateral anterior prefrontal cortex. Ventrally, an anterior TPJ cluster interacted with ventral prefrontal cortex and anterior insula, while a posterior TPJ cluster interacted with posterior cingulate, temporal pole, and anterior medial prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that TPJ can be subdivided into subregions on the basis of its structural and functional connectivity.

Individual Differences in Adult Reading Are Associated with Left Temporo-parietal to Dorsal Striatal Functional Connectivity

“…Here, the k-means algorithm started with random assignment and was run 10 times, to find the assignment that minimized the total distance to center. As previous structural connectivity literature has suggested that 3 large-scale networks make connections with the TPJ (Mars et al 2012), the left and right TPJ were initially divided into 3 networks. As these clusters were relatively large, a more fine-grained parcellation was subsequently conducted.…”

“…As described above, we used 2 clustering analyses: a 3-cluster solution to replicate a prior study of connectivity-based TPJ parcellation (Mars et al 2012), and a more fine-grained 8-cluster solution. Association with decoding measures was examined for both solutions.…”

“…This is notable in light of the fact that the TPJ is located at the intersection of several brain networks (Mars et al 2012;Bzdok et al 2013;Power et al 2013;Bray et al 2015). Examining the relationship between functional connectivity and reading measures within each of these subnetworks may shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying interindividual variability in reading competence.…”

“…As previous studies have reported 3 functional subdivisions within the TPJ (Mars et al 2012), with connectivity to the default-mode, salience, and ventral attention networks, we first report results using a 3-cluster solution as seeds. We additionally tested a higher resolution parcellation (8 subregions), which we hypothesized might reveal TPJ subnetworks with more specific connectivity patterns to regions involved in reading.…”

Right Temporoparietal Gray Matter Predicts Accuracy of Social Perception in the Autism Spectrum

“…For the ASD group, the stepwise regression analyses yielded significant results only for one region: the right angular gyrus / ascending segment of the posterior superior temporal sulcus, also called the temporoparietal junction or TPJ (Corbetta et al 2000;Decety and Lamm 2007;Mars et al 2011). The regression model that could explain gray matter in this region included only performance in the interactivity task as predictor (F(1,9)=13.08, p<0.008; r=.75, r 2 =.56; Figure 3).…”