Spatio-temporal activity of brain electrical sources during processing of abstract social concepts

concepts frequently refer to socialness, i.e. knowledge about interactions between people. Grounded cognition theories propose that such social concepts are represented in brain circuits involved in processing social interactions. The present event-related potential study investigated the time course of electrical brain activity in response to abstract social concepts compared to abstract control concepts presented during a lexical decision task. Analysis of estimated volume source activity revealed increased activity to social concepts in the left insula with an onset of 216 ms and somewhat later in frontal brain areas (292 ms). These regions are associated with empathy and mentalizing, respectively. Social concepts also enhanced activity in the left anterior temporal lobe (292 ms), a heteromodal semantic hub supporting semantic integration. Later (438 ms), social concepts activated a fronto-parietal brain network typically engaged during social interaction. Early activity increases in social cognition brain networks (<300 ms) most probably indicate access to conceptual features, while later activity increases may reflect semantic elaboration. In accordance with hybrid models of conceptual cognition, processing of abstract social concepts is grounded in brain regions associated with empathy and social interactions, complemented by semantic integration processes in heteromodal semantic hub areas.