TY  - JOUR
AU  - Schilbach, L.
AU  - Wilms, M.
AU  - Eickhoff, S. B.
AU  - Romanzetti, S.
AU  - Tepest, R.
AU  - Bente, G.
AU  - Shah, J. N.
AU  - Fink, G. R.
AU  - Vogeley, K.
TI  - Minds Made for Sharing: Initiating Joint Attention Recruits Reward-related Neurocircuitry
JO  - Journal of cognitive neuroscience
VL  - 22
SN  - 0898-929X
CY  - Cambridge, Mass.
PB  - MIT Pr. Journals
M1  - PreJuSER-10456
SP  - 2702 - 2715
PY  - 2010
N1  - We thank all the colleagues in the MR and Cognitive Neurology group at the Research Centre Julich for their support. In particular, we would like to thank Barbara Elghahwagi and Dorothe Krug for their help during fMRI data acquisition. L. S. is also grateful to Nicole David, Shaun Gallagher, Stefan Heim, Rudiger Ilg, Bojana Kuzmanovic, Anna Rotarska-Jagiela, Tobias Schlicht, David Sharp, and Ralph Weidner for their helpful advice and stimulating comments.The study was supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research, the Volkswagen Foundation, and by a personal grant to L. S. by the "Kompetenzzentrum NeuroNRW" at the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of North-Rhine Westfalia, Germany.
AB  - The ability and motivation to share attention is a unique aspect of human cognition. Despite its significance, the neural basis remains elusive. To investigate the neural correlates of joint attention, we developed a novel, interactive research paradigm in which participants' gaze behavior--as measured by an eye tracking device--was used to contingently control the gaze of a computer-animated character. Instructed that the character on screen was controlled by a real person outside the scanner, 21 participants interacted with the virtual other while undergoing fMRI. Experimental variations focused on leading versus following the gaze of the character when fixating one of three objects also shown on the screen. In concordance with our hypotheses, results demonstrate, firstly, that following someone else's gaze to engage in joint attention resulted in activation of anterior portion of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) known to be involved in the supramodal coordination of perceptual and cognitive processes. Secondly, directing someone else's gaze toward an object activated the ventral striatum which--in light of ratings obtained from participants--appears to underlie the hedonic aspects of sharing attention. The data, therefore, support the idea that other-initiated joint attention relies upon recruitment of MPFC previously related to the "meeting of minds." In contrast, self-initiated joint attention leads to a differential increase of neural activity in reward-related brain areas, which might contribute to the uniquely human motivation to engage in the sharing of experiences.
KW  - Adolescent
KW  - Adult
KW  - Analysis of Variance
KW  - Attention: physiology
KW  - Brain Mapping
KW  - Eye Movements: physiology
KW  - Humans
KW  - Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Male
KW  - Motivation: physiology
KW  - Nerve Net: physiology
KW  - Photic Stimulation
KW  - Prefrontal Cortex: physiology
KW  - Reward
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:19929761
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000281129400003
DO  - DOI:10.1162/jocn.2009.21401
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/10456
ER  -