Temporo-Parietal Cortex Involved in Modeling One's Own and Others' Attention

In a traditional view, in social cognition, attention is equated with gaze and people track attention by tracking other peoples gaze. Here we used fMRI to test whether the brain represents attention in a richer manner. People read stories describing an agent (either oneself or someone else) directing attention to an object in one of two ways: either internally directed (endogenous) or externally induced (exogenous). We used multivoxel pattern analysis to examine how brain areas within the theory-of-mind network encoded attention type and agent type. Brain activity patterns in the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) showed significant decoding of information about endogenous versus exogenous attention. The left TPJ, left superior temporal sulcus (STS), precuneus, and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) significantly decoded agent type (self versus other). These findings show that the brain constructs a rich model of ones own and others attentional state, possibly aiding theory of mind. Impact statementThis study used fMRI to show that the human brain encodes other peoples attention in enough richness to distinguish whether that attention was directed exogenously (stimulus-driven) or endogenously (internally driven).