Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2010 Mar;5(1):48-58. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsp045. Epub 2009 Dec 5.
A major controversy in the social cognitive neurosciences evolved around the question whether activity in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and adjacent temporoparietal junction (pSTS/TPJ-region) evoked by various tasks represents a common process or distinct processes. To investigate this question, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants performed Biological Motion (BM), Theory-of-Mind (ToM) and Moral Judgment (MJ) tasks. Importantly, for each task we used the same newly developed animated stimuli. Indicative of a common process, we identified small clusters of overlapping activity for BM and ToM in right pSTS and for ToM and MJ in bilateral pSTS and left TPJ. Indicative of distinct processes, on the contrary, we detected extensive dissociable activity for BM in right pSTS, for ToM in bilateral pSTS and left TPJ, and for MJ in bilateral pSTS and TPJ. Thus, our data provide strong evidence for a combined two-staged process account: (i) the parsing of a stream of visual-spatial information, represented by activity in right pSTS, where neighboring and overlapping clusters of increased responses were found for all three tasks; (ii) increasingly more complex processing of the communicative significance of other people's behavior, represented by hierarchically increasing activity in left pSTS and bilateral TPJ elicited by ToM and MJ.
在后上颞回和相邻颞顶联合区(pSTS/TPJ 区)的各种任务诱发的活动是否代表共同的过程或不同的过程,这是社会认知神经科学中的一个主要争议。为了研究这个问题,我们在参与者执行生物运动(BM)、心理理论(ToM)和道德判断(MJ)任务时使用了功能磁共振成像(fMRI)。重要的是,对于每个任务,我们都使用了相同的新开发的动画刺激。表明存在共同的过程,我们在右侧 pSTS 中为 BM 和 ToM 确定了小的重叠活动簇,在双侧 pSTS 和左侧 TPJ 中为 ToM 和 MJ 确定了小的重叠活动簇。相反,表明存在不同的过程,我们在右侧 pSTS 中为 BM 检测到广泛的可分离活动,在双侧 pSTS 和左侧 TPJ 中为 ToM 检测到广泛的可分离活动,在双侧 pSTS 和 TPJ 中为 MJ 检测到广泛的可分离活动。因此,我们的数据为联合的两阶段过程提供了强有力的证据:(i)对视觉空间信息流的解析,由右侧 pSTS 中的活动表示,在所有三个任务中都发现了相邻和重叠的增加反应簇;(ii)对他人行为的交际意义的处理越来越复杂,由左侧 pSTS 和双侧 TPJ 中的层次递增活动表示,这些活动由 ToM 和 MJ 诱发。