The precuneus role in third-person perspective of dyadic social interaction

Petrini, Karin; Piwek, Lukasz; Crabbe, F.; Pollick, Frank E.; Garrod, S.

Abstract

The ability to interpret the actions of others is necessary for survival and a successful social life. Human fMRI studies have consistently identified involvement of the precuneus in first- and third-person perspective taking of social situations. However, it is not clear yet whether this area plays a critical role in attributing a social meaning to the actions of others. Here we performed an fMRI study while participants were viewing controlled upright and inverted dyadic displays that had been validated in a previous behavioural experiment. Participants performed an irrelevant task while watching the biological motion of two agents acting together (social) or independently (non-social). When compared to social displays, the non-social displays elicited greater activation in the bilateral precuneus, and a group of frontal, parietal and occipital regions. When examined further, the data also demonstrated that the bilateral precuneus responded with greater activation to inverted than upright displays. Correlations between the regions of interests’ activity and effective connectivity analysis showed consistent evidence of an interhemispheric asymmetry between the right and left precuneus. Based on these findings we suggest that the precuneus plays a crucial role in detecting socially meaningful interactions.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2011
• Journal: Perception
• Print ISSN: 0301-0066
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-4233
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Issue: Suppl.
• Pages: 87-88
• Keywords: precuneus role, third-person, dyadic social interaction
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/970986
• Publisher URL: http://www.perceptionweb.com/ecvp/ecvp11.pdf
• Related Public URLs: http://www.perceptionweb.com/abstract.cgi?id=v110167