Differential responses of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and right posterior superior temporal sulcus to spontaneous mentalizing

• Published in: Human brain mapping Vol. 38; no. 8; pp. 3791 - 3803
• Main Authors: Moessnang, Carolin, Otto, Kristina, Bilek, Edda, Schäfer, Axel, Baumeister, Sarah, Hohmann, Sarah, Poustka, Luise, Brandeis, Daniel, Banaschewski, Tobias, Tost, Heike, Meyer‐Lindenberg, Andreas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.08.2017; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Autism; Autistic Disorder - psychology; autistic traits; Brain; Brain Mapping; Coupling; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; Female; fMRI; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Information processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Motivation; Neural networks; Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging; Neural Pathways - physiology; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Occipital lobe; Perception; posterior superior temporal sulcus; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Social Behavior; spontaneous mentalizing; Superior temporal sulcus; Temporal cortex; Temporal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Theory of Mind - physiology; Visual cortex; Visual perception; Young Adult; fMRI; autistic traits; posterior superior temporal sulcus; spontaneous mentalizing; dorsomedial prefrontal cortex
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23626

Previous research suggests a role of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in metacognitive representation of social information, while the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) has been linked to social perception. This study targeted these functional roles in the context of spontaneous mentalizing. An animated shapes task was presented to 46 subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Stimuli consisted of video clips depicting animated shapes whose movement patterns prompt spontaneous mentalizing or simple intention attribution. Based on their differential response during spontaneous mentalizing, both regions were characterized with respect to their task‐dependent connectivity profiles and their associations with autistic traits. Functional network analyses revealed highly localized coupling of the right pSTS with visual areas in the lateral occipital cortex, while the dmPFC showed extensive coupling with instances of large‐scale control networks and temporal areas including the right pSTS. Autistic traits were related to mentalizing‐specific activation of the dmPFC and to the strength of connectivity between the dmPFC and posterior temporal regions. These results are in good agreement with the hypothesized roles of the dmPFC and right pSTS for metacognitive representation and perception‐based processing of social information, respectively, and further inform their implication in social behavior linked to autism. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3791–3803, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.