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Single-neuronal predictions of others’ beliefs in humans

Nature, ISSN: 1476-4687, Vol: 591, Issue: 7851, Page: 610-614
2021
  • 60
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 397
    Captures
  • 10
    Mentions
  • 25
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    60
  • Captures
    397
  • Mentions
    10
    • News Mentions
      6
      • News
        6
    • Blog Mentions
      2
      • Blog
        2
    • References
      2
      • Wikipedia
        2
  • Social Media
    25
    • Shares, Likes & Comments
      25
      • Facebook
        25

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Article Description

Human social behaviour crucially depends on our ability to reason about others. This capacity for theory of mind has a vital role in social cognition because it enables us not only to form a detailed understanding of the hidden thoughts and beliefs of other individuals but also to understand that they may differ from our own. Although a number of areas in the human brain have been linked to social reasoning and its disruption across a variety of psychosocial disorders, the basic cellular mechanisms that underlie human theory of mind remain undefined. Here, using recordings from single cells in the human dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, we identify neurons that reliably encode information about others’ beliefs across richly varying scenarios and that distinguish self- from other-belief-related representations. By further following their encoding dynamics, we show how these cells represent the contents of the others’ beliefs and accurately predict whether they are true or false. We also show how they track inferred beliefs from another’s specific perspective and how their activities relate to behavioural performance. Together, these findings reveal a detailed cellular process in the human dorsomedial prefrontal cortex for representing another’s beliefs and identify candidate neurons that could support theory of mind.

Bibliographic Details

Jamali, Mohsen; Grannan, Benjamin L; Fedorenko, Evelina; Saxe, Rebecca; Báez-Mendoza, Raymundo; Williams, Ziv M

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Multidisciplinary

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