The right temporoparietal junction in attention and social interaction: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study |
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| Authors: | Sarah C. Krall Lukas J. Volz Eileen Oberwelland Christian Grefkes Gereon R. Fink Kerstin Konrad |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM‐3), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany;2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany;3. Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany;4. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and UCSB Brain Imaging Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, California |
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| Abstract: | The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) has been associated with the ability to reorient attention to unexpected stimuli and the capacity to understand others' mental states (theory of mind [ToM]/false belief). Using activation likelihood estimation meta‐analysis we previously unraveled that the anterior rTPJ is involved in both, reorienting of attention and ToM, possibly indicating a more general role in attention shifting. Here, we used neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation to directly probe the role of the rTPJ across attentional reorienting and false belief. Task performance in a visual cueing paradigm and false belief cartoon task was investigated after application of continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over anterior rTPJ (versus vertex, for control). We found that attentional reorienting was significantly impaired after rTPJ cTBS compared with control. For the false belief task, error rates in trials demanding a shift in mental state significantly increased. Of note, a significant positive correlation indicated a close relation between the stimulation effect on attentional reorienting and false belief trials. Our findings extend previous neuroimaging evidence by indicating an essential overarching role of the anterior rTPJ for both cognitive functions, reorienting of attention and ToM. Hum Brain Mapp 37:796–807, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc . |
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| Keywords: | attention shifting reorienting of attention false belief ToM TPJ TMS |
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