Repetitive TMS of the temporo-parietal junction disrupts participant’s expectations in a spontaneous Theory of Mind task

Abstract

A recent debate about Theory of Mind (ToM) concerns whether spontaneous and explicit mentalizing are based on the same mechanisms. However, only a few neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural bases of spontaneous ToM, with inconsistent results. The present study had two goals: first, to investigate whether the right Temporo-Parietal Junction (rTPJ) is crucially involved in spontaneous ToM and second, to gain insight into the role of the rTPJ in ToM. For the first time, we applied rTMS to the rTPJ while participants were engaged in a spontaneous false belief task. Participants watched videos of a scene including an agent who acquires a true or false belief about the location of an object. At the end of the movie, participants reacted to the presence of the object. Results show that, during stimulation of the control site, RTs were affected by both the participant’s expectations and the belief of the agent. Stimulation of the rTPJ significantly modulated task performance, supporting the idea that spontaneous ToM, as well as explicit ToM, relies on TPJ activity. However, we did not observe a disruption of the representation of the agent’s belief. Rather, the stimulation interfered with participant’s predictions, supporting the idea that rTPJ is crucially involved in self-other distinction.

The Human Dynamic Clamp reveals the fronto-parietal network linking real-time social coordination and cognition

“…Interfering with brain activity using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation has shown a causal role of rTPJ in numerous processes relevant to social interaction, ranging from self-centered (i.e. body ownership; Tsakiris et al, 2008) and othercentered socio-cognitive processes (mentalizing and Theory of Mind; Bardi et al, 2017) to self-other integration in imitative actions (Sowden and Catmur, 2015). Crucially, enhancement of rTPJ activity (using tDCS) improves online interactions by boosting the ability to switch between self and other representations in both perspective-taking and the control of imitation (Santiesteban et al, 2012).…”

Getting into sync: Data‐driven analyses reveal patterns of neural coupling that distinguish among different social exchanges

“…A substantial body of research has shown that the precuneus, STS, and TPJ comprise a network of brain regions co-activated during experimental tasks requiring the attribution of mental states to others, such as desires, intentions, and beliefs (Bardi et al, 2017;Carlson et al, 2013;Eddy, 2016). A substantial body of research has shown that the precuneus, STS, and TPJ comprise a network of brain regions co-activated during experimental tasks requiring the attribution of mental states to others, such as desires, intentions, and beliefs (Bardi et al, 2017;Carlson et al, 2013;Eddy, 2016).…”

“…The collection of brain regions expressing interpersonal neural coupling during co-operative exchanges, Coop#1, encompassed bilateral precunei, STS, TPJ, and the cerebellum. A substantial body of research has shown that the precuneus, STS, and TPJ comprise a network of brain regions co-activated during experimental tasks requiring the attribution of mental states to others, such as desires, intentions, and beliefs (Bardi et al, 2017;Carlson et al, 2013;Eddy, 2016). Based on its engagement during visuo-spatial mental imagery (e.g., Ghaem et al, 1997;Hanakawa et al, 2003), and both implicit and explicit metalizing (for meta-analytic reviews, see Schilbach et al, 2012;Wolf, Dziobek, & Heekeren, 2010), it is believed that the precuneus is involved in the representation of others' perspectives (Cavanna & Trimble, 2006).…”

“…Within the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), for example, brain responses become synchronized and/or contingent between interactants during economic exchanges (Jahng, Kralik, Hwang, & Jeong, 2017;Tang et al, 2016;Zhang, Liu, Pelowski, Jia, & Yu, 2017), verbal and non-verbal communication (Bilek et al, 2015(Bilek et al, , 2017Kinreich, Djalovski, Kraus, Louzoun, & Feldman, 2017;Rojiani, Zhang, Noah, & Hirsch, 2018;Wilson, Molnar-Szakacs, & Iacoboni, 2008), and cooperative joint-action tasks (Abe et al, 2019). This is perhaps unsurprising given the putative role of the TPJ in inferring the intentional and motivational states of others (Bardi, Six, & Brass, 2017;Carlson, Koenig, & Harms, 2013;Eddy, 2016;Frith & Frith, 2006), a process that is essential for interacting successfully with others.…”

Role of the right temporoparietal junction in intergroup bias in trust decisions

“…All participants were right‐handed as assessed by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, ). The sample size was determined based on previous rTMS studies on decision‐making (Bardi, Six, & Brass, ; Baumgartner, Schiller, Rieskamp, et al, ; Krall et al, ). One participant was excluded from the analyses during data collection (see Supplementary Methods for details).…”