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Cognitive and Affective Perspective-Taking: Evidence for Shared and Dissociable Anatomical Substrates
Meghan L Healey1,2, Murray Grossman1,2
1Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Frontiers in Neurology
|July 11, 2018
Summary
Cognitive and affective perspective-taking involve distinct neural pathways and executive function dependencies. Cognitive perspective-taking relies more on executive functions like mental set switching than affective perspective-taking.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Social Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Perspective-taking, vital for social interaction, has cognitive and affective components.
- Differences between cognitive and affective perspective-taking neural correlates are under-investigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate distinct neural correlates for cognitive and affective perspective-taking.
- To examine the relationship between these processes and executive functions.
Main Methods:
- Review of functional imaging studies in healthy adults.
- Analysis of behavioral and structural imaging in frontotemporal dementia patients.
Main Results:
- Shared neural regions include temporoparietal junction, precuneus, and temporal poles.
- Affective perspective-taking uniquely engages limbic system and basal ganglia.
- Cognitive perspective-taking involves dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), while affective involves ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
- Cognitive perspective-taking is dependent on executive functions, particularly mental set switching.
Conclusions:
- Distinct neural substrates exist for cognitive and affective perspective-taking.
- Cognitive perspective-taking shows greater reliance on executive functions.
- Future research should address outcome measures and terminology precision.
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