Brain stimulation to left prefrontal cortex modulates attentional orienting to gaze cues

Modulatory Effects of Communicative Gaze on Attentional Orienting Are Driven by Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex but Not Right Temporoparietal Junction

Communicative gaze (e.g., mutual or averted) has been shown to affect attentional orienting. However, no study to date has clearly separated the neural basis of the pure social component that modulates attentional orienting in response to communicative gaze from other processes that might be a combination of attentional and social effects. We used TMS to isolate the purely social effects of communicative gaze on attentional orienting. Participants completed a gaze-cueing task with a humanoid robot who engaged either in mutual or in averted gaze before shifting its gaze. Before the task, participants received either sham stimulation (baseline), stimulation of right TPJ (rTPJ), or dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Results showed, as expected, that communicative gaze affected attentional orienting in baseline condition. This effect was not evident for rTPJ stimulation. Interestingly, stimulation to rTPJ also canceled out attentional orienting altogether. On the other hand, dmPFC stimulation eliminated the socially driven difference in attention orienting between the two gaze conditions while maintaining the basic general attentional orienting effect. Thus, our results allowed for separation of the pure social effect of communicative gaze on attentional orienting from other processes that are a combination of social and generic attentional components.

Dataset of concurrent EEG, ECG, and behavior with multiple doses of transcranial electrical stimulation

We present a dataset combining human-participant high-density electroencephalography (EEG) with physiological and continuous behavioral metrics during transcranial electrical stimulation (tES). Data include within participant application of nine High-Definition tES (HD-tES) types, targeting three cortical regions (frontal, motor, parietal) with three stimulation waveforms (DC, 5 Hz, 30 Hz); more than 783 total stimulation trials over 62 sessions with EEG, physiological (ECG, EOG), and continuous behavioral vigilance/alertness metrics. Experiment 1 and 2 consisted of participants performing a continuous vigilance/alertness task over three 70-minute and two 70.5-minute sessions, respectively. Demographic data were collected, as well as self-reported wellness questionnaires before and after each session. Participants received all 9 stimulation types in Experiment 1, with each session including three stimulation types, with 4 trials per type. Participants received two stimulation types in Experiment 2, with 20 trials of a given stimulation type per session. Within-participant reliability was tested by repeating select sessions. This unique dataset supports a range of hypothesis testing including interactions of tDCS/tACS location and frequency, brain-state, physiology, fatigue, and cognitive performance.

Perspective-Taking: In Search of a Theory

Perspective-taking has been one of the central concerns of work on social attention and developmental psychology for the past 60 years. Despite its prominence, there is no formal description of what it means to represent another’s viewpoint. The present article argues that such a description is now required in the form of theory—a theory that should address a number of issues that are central to the notion of assuming another’s viewpoint. After suggesting that the mental imagery debate provides a good framework for understanding some of the issues and problems surrounding perspective-taking, we set out nine points that we believe any theory of perspective-taking should consider.

From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction

Amidst the fourth industrial revolution, social robots are resolutely moving from fiction to reality. With sophisticated artificial agents becoming ever more ubiquitous in daily life, researchers across different fields are grappling with the questions concerning how humans perceive and interact with these agents and the extent to which the human brain incorporates intelligent machines into our social milieu. This theme issue surveys and discusses the latest findings, current challenges and future directions in neuroscience- and psychology-inspired human-robot interaction (HRI). Critical questions are explored from a transdisciplinary perspective centred around four core topics in HRI: technical solutions for HRI, development and learning for HRI, robots as a tool to study social cognition, and moral and ethical implications of HRI. Integrating findings from diverse but complementary research fields, including social and cognitive neurosciences, psychology, artificial intelligence and robotics, the contributions showcase ways in which research from disciplines spanning biological sciences, social sciences and technology deepen our understanding of the potential and limits of robotic agents in human social life. This article is part of the theme issue 'From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction'.