Predicting goals from others' actions: The outcome of low-level processing in right inferior parietal and posterior temporal cortex

Roman Liepelt, von Cramon, M. Brass

Publikation: Beitrag in Buch/Bericht/KonferenzbandBeiträge in SammelwerkenForschungBegutachtung

Abstract

Recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies have found that observed actions are directly matched onto the motor representation of an observer. Although direct matching is a very simple mechanism it might be the underlying mechanism of higher order cognitive processes, such as inferring others‘ action goals. We used fMRI to test which neural circuits are involved in inferring goals from others‘ actions when these actions do not directly indicate the goals. We compared two conditions, both showing tiny finger lifting movements. In one condition the goal was easy to infer due to the presence of action context (a clamp over the moving finger, see Fig. 1.1.12.1 B). Goal inference in the second condition was difficult due to the lack of action context (see Fig. 1.1.12.1 A). We found three different regions more strongly activated when goal inference was difficult (see Fig. 1.1.12.2): (1) The superior temporal sulcus (not shown), (2) the right inferior parietal cortex, at the junction with the posterior temporal cortex (TPJ) and (3) the angular gyrus of the inferior parietal lobule. In line with mentalizing accounts of goal prediction, these findings suggest that inferring goals from others’ actions is the outcome of a set of lower-level computational processes taking place in parts of superior temporal and inferior parietal cortex. The anatomical location of the TPJ suggests that an attentional shifting function, comparable to the one we found for goal-inference processing, is also needed in low-level attentional tasks, as well as in higher-level TOM tasks. Our findings are framed by two theoretical concepts of goal inference processing differing with respect to the direction of the inference process. Taken together, our findings support the recently proposed view that rather domain-general computational mechanisms are crucial for higher level social cognitive processing (Decety & Lamm, in press).
OriginalspracheEnglisch
TitelMax-Planck Institut : Research Report 2006/2007
Erscheinungsdatum2007
Seiten24
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2007

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