» Articles » PMID: 34716270

Live Agent Preference and Social Action Monitoring in the Macaque Mid-superior Temporal Sulcus Region

Overview
Specialty Science
Date 2021 Oct 30
PMID 34716270
Citations 6
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Mentalizing, the ability to infer the mental states of others, is a cornerstone of adaptive social intelligence. While functional brain mapping of human mentalizing has progressed considerably, its evolutionary signature in nonhuman primates remains debated. The discovery that the middle part of the macaque superior temporal sulcus (mid-STS) region has a connectional fingerprint most similar to the human temporoparietal junction (TPJ)-a crucial node in the mentalizing network-raises the possibility that these cortical areas may also share basic functional properties associated with mentalizing. Here, we show that this is the case in aspects of a preference for live social interactions and in a theoretical framework of predictive coding. Macaque monkeys were trained to perform a turn-taking choice task with another real monkey partner sitting directly face-to-face or a filmed partner appearing in prerecorded videos. We found that about three-fourths of task-related mid-STS neurons exhibited agent-dependent activity, most responding selectively or preferentially to the partner's action. At the population level, activities of these partner-type neurons were significantly greater under live-partner compared to video-recorded-partner task conditions. Furthermore, a subset of the partner-type neurons responded proactively when predictions about the partner's action were violated. This prediction error coding was specific to the action domain; almost none of the neurons signaled error in the prediction of reward. The present findings highlight unique roles of the macaque mid-STS at the single-neuron level and further delineate its functional parallels with the human TPJ in social cognitive processes associated with mentalizing.

Citing Articles

The big mixup: Neural representation during natural modes of primate visual behavior.

Leopold D Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2024; 88:102913.

PMID: 39214044 PMC: 11392606. DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102913.


Dynamic spatial representation of self and others' actions in the macaque frontal cortex.

Ninomiya T, Isoda M Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024; 121(31):e2403445121.

PMID: 39047041 PMC: 11295024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403445121.


The Development of Socially Directed Attention: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study in Infant Monkeys.

Kovacs-Balint Z, Sanchez M, Wang A, Feczko E, Earl E, Styner M J Cogn Neurosci. 2024; 36(12):2742-2760.

PMID: 38739568 PMC: 11844751. DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02187.


A frontopolar-temporal circuit determines the impact of social information in macaque decision making.

Mahmoodi A, Harbison C, Bongioanni A, Emberton A, Roumazeilles L, Sallet J Neuron. 2023; 112(1):84-92.e6.

PMID: 37863039 PMC: 10914637. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.09.035.


Specialized Networks for Social Cognition in the Primate Brain.

Deen B, Schwiedrzik C, Sliwa J, Freiwald W Annu Rev Neurosci. 2023; 46:381-401.

PMID: 37428602 PMC: 11115357. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-102522-121410.


References
1.
di Pellegrino G, Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G . Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study. Exp Brain Res. 1992; 91(1):176-80. DOI: 10.1007/BF00230027. View

2.
Ninomiya T, Dougherty K, Godlove D, Schall J, Maier A . Microcircuitry of agranular frontal cortex: contrasting laminar connectivity between occipital and frontal areas. J Neurophysiol. 2015; 113(9):3242-55. PMC: 4440241. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00624.2014. View

3.
Sallet J, Mars R, Noonan M, Neubert F, Jbabdi S, OReilly J . The organization of dorsal frontal cortex in humans and macaques. J Neurosci. 2013; 33(30):12255-74. PMC: 3744647. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5108-12.2013. View

4.
Pitcher D, Ungerleider L . Evidence for a Third Visual Pathway Specialized for Social Perception. Trends Cogn Sci. 2020; 25(2):100-110. PMC: 7811363. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.11.006. View

5.
Isoda M, Noritake A, Ninomiya T . Development of social systems neuroscience using macaques. Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2018; 94(7):305-323. PMC: 6117490. DOI: 10.2183/pjab.94.020. View