The Role of the Right Temporoparietal Junction in the Control of Imitation

Abstract

Controlling neural representations of the self and other people is fundamental to social cognition. Brain imaging studies have implicated the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in this ability, but causal evidence for its role is lacking. A debate is also ongoing regarding whether the control of, or switching between, self and other representations is a specialized or domain-general process: the rTPJ's well-established role in reorienting attention supports a domain-general process, but a role specific to social cognition has also been proposed. Neuronavigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to target the rTPJ (and a control mid-occipital site) during a task requiring participants to switch between representations of others' actions on both a social and a nonsocial level, by manipulating imitative and spatial compatibility simultaneously and independently. Both imitative and spatial compatibility effects were apparent on response times; however, the effect of imitative compatibility was significantly stronger, indicating less control of imitation, during stimulation of the rTPJ relative to the control site. This suggests that the rTPJ is involved in switching between self and other representations, and further, that this process may not be entirely domain general.

Atypical neural responding to hearing one’s own name in adults with ASD.

“…Neurostimulation studies from our lab and others further showed a causal role of the rTPJ in self-other distinction (Bardi, Gheza, & Brass, 2017;Hogeveen et al, 2014;Santiesteban, Banissy, Catmur, & Bird, 2012;Sowden & Catmur, 2015). Research has shown reduced TPJ, and sometimes also mPFC activity in ASD during self-other distinction across several domains, including mentalizing (Eddy, 2016;Kennedy & Courchesne, 2008;Murdaugh, Nadendla, & Kana, 2014;Pfeifer et al, 2013;Spengler et al, 2010), adding to accumulating evidence that the TPJ is a core region implicated in ASD (Chien, Lin, Lai, Gau, & Tseng, 2015;Fishman, Keown, Lincoln, Pineda, & Müller, 2014;Kana, Uddin, Kenet, Chugani, & Müller, 2014).…”

Self–other control processes in social cognition: from imitation to empathy

“…Training to increase self-other control improved both the control of imitation and visual perspective-taking. As noted above, however, both processes are known to rely on right TPJ [13,14]. A more stringent test of the involvement of self -other control across social cognitive domains is to measure whether training to increase self-other control in the motor domain affects a process that does not depend on the same neuroanatomical location, namely empathy.…”

The influence of action observation on action execution: Dissociating the contribution of action on perception, perception on action, and resolving conflict

“…Most imaging studies have focused on this third alternative, namely on resolving conflict between observed and planned movements Spengler et al, 2010;). In particular, it has been shown that the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) are involved in the imitation inhibition task, brain areas known to engage in self versus other representation Sowden & Catmur, 2013;Spengler et al, 2010;). This led researchers to relate a social function to these high-level processes dealing with self-other related conflict Santiesteban et al, 2012;Sowden & Catmur, 2013;Spengler et al, 2010;).…”