https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/137716/files/FZJ-2013-04044.pdf

Re-evaluating the role of TPJ in attentional control: Contextual updating?

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is frequently associated with different capacities that to shift attention to unexpected stimuli (reorienting of attention) and to understand others’ (false) mental state [theory of mind (ToM), typically represented by false belief tasks]. Competing hypotheses either suggest the rTPJ representing a unitary region involved in separate cognitive functions or consisting of subregions subserving distinct processes. We conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses to test these hypotheses. A conjunction analysis across ALE meta-analyses delineating regions consistently recruited by reorienting of attention and false belief studies revealed the anterior rTPJ, suggesting an overarching role of this specific region. Moreover, the anatomical difference analysis unravelled the posterior rTPJ as higher converging in false belief compared with reorienting of attention tasks. This supports the concept of an exclusive role of the posterior rTPJ in the social domain. These results were complemented by meta-analytic connectivity mapping (MACM) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analysis to investigate whole-brain connectivity patterns in task-constrained and task-free brain states. This allowed for detailing the functional separation of the anterior and posterior rTPJ. The combination of MACM and RSFC mapping showed that the posterior rTPJ has connectivity patterns with typical ToM regions, whereas the anterior part of rTPJ co-activates with the attentional network. Taken together, our data suggest that rTPJ contains two functionally fractionated subregions: while posterior rTPJ seems exclusively involved in the social domain, anterior rTPJ is involved in both, attention and ToM, conceivably indicating an attentional shifting role of this region.

https://brainmap.org/pubs/Krall_BSF_14.pdf

The role of the right temporoparietal junction in attention and social interaction as revealed by ALE meta-analysis

Classic psychedelics: An integrative review of epidemiology, therapeutics, mystical experience, and brain network function.

The inferior parietal lobule and temporoparietal junction: A network perspective

http://www.brockdmclab.com/uploads/3/7/8/2/37821089/mahy_moses__pfeifer_2014_tom_in_the_brain_dcn.pdf

How and where: theory-of-mind in the brain.

The right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) has been associated with two apparently disparate functional roles: in attention and in social cognition. According to one account, the rTPJ initiates a “circuit-breaking” signal that interrupts ongoing attentional processes, effectively reorienting attention. It is argued this primary function of the rTPJ has been extended beyond attention, through a process of evolutionarily cooption, to play a role in social cognition. We propose an alternative account, according to which the capacity for social cognition depends on a network which is both distinct from and in tension with brain areas involved in focused attention and target detection: the default mode network (DMN). Theory characterizing the rTPJ based on the area's purported role in reorienting may be falsely guided by the co-occurrence of two distinct effects in contiguous regions: activation of the supramarginal gyrus (SMG), associated with its functional role in target detection; and the transient release, during spatial reorienting, of suppression of the angular gyrus (AG) associated with focused attention. Findings based on meta-analysis and resting functional connectivity are presented which support this alternative account. We find distinct regions, possessing anti-correlated patterns of resting connectivity, associated with social reasoning (AG) and target detection (SMG) at the rTPJ. The locus for reorienting was spatially intermediate between the AG and SMG and showed a pattern of connectivity with similarities to social reasoning and target detection seeds. These findings highlight a general methodological concern for brain imaging. Given evidence that certain tasks not only activate some areas but also suppress activity in other areas, it is suggested that researchers need to distinguish two distinct putative mechanisms, either of which may produce an increase in activity in a brain area: functional engagement in the task vs. release of suppression.

/pdf/rethinking-the-role-of-the-rtpj-in-attention-and-social-4e6rmmx8c3.pdf

Rethinking the role of the rTPJ in attention and social cognition in light of the opposing domains hypothesis: findings from an ALE-based meta-analysis and resting-state functional connectivity

How we experience music depends largely on how we orient our attention. For example, we can orient attention toward aspects of the music or toward thoughts that are evoked while listening. Often, those thoughts are memories that are associated with the music. To better understand how task set and the associated attentional focus recruit brain networks during attentive music listening, we performed two experiments: (a) a single-factor behavioral experiment manipulating Attentional Focus and (b) a balanced 2 × 2 factorial design functional MRI experiment crossing Attentional Focus with Memory Status. Before listening to 30-s song excerpts, half of which were known to be memory evoking in the functional MRI experiment, participants were instructed to either focus on the retrieval of memories evoked by the music, or to determine how many instruments were playing. Attentional Focus accounted for the majority of variability in brain activity and modulated both functional connectivity and community structure of brain regions during music listening. Consistent with previous research on music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs), we found that the medial temporal lobe may not be necessary for MEAMs to be experienced. However, focusing attention toward MEAMs increased medial temporal lobe activity and behavioral ratings of memory reliving. Focusing on MEAMs also increased connectivity between the left hippocampus and default-mode network regions supporting autobiographical recall, in addition to sensorimotor regions that music familiarity is known to modulate. The results substantiate the notion that how we experience music and associated memories depends on how we attend to the music. We provide initial evidence suggesting that music-evoked remembering integrates a sensorimotor representation of the music with episodic representations for the related autobiographical content.

Benjamin Kubit

Papers

Rethinking the role of the rTPJ in attention and social cognition in light of the opposing domains hypothesis: findings from an ALE-based meta-analysis and resting-state functional connectivity

Listening for memories: Attentional focus dissociates functional brain networks engaged by memory-evoking music.