A Distinct Role of the Temporal-Parietal Junction in Predicting Socially Guided Decisions

Abstract

You Must Be Human Are there specific brain structures associated with social cognition or with aspects of information processing that frequently occur together with social cognition? Carter et al. (p. 109 ) invited subjects to play a simplified virtual poker game against either a human or a computer and examined brain scans collected during the game. The brains scans when the cards shown were used to predict the participant's decision 6 seconds later. Activity in one region, the temporal-parietal junction, was one of the best predictors of future decisions against a human opponent, but the single worst predictor against a computer opponent.