Successful human social behaviour relies on an ability called Theory of Mind (ToM) – the ability to infer the mental states (beliefs, desires) of other people. ToM is the basis of human cooperation and prosocial behaviour, and its importance is dramatically demonstrated when it breaks down in various ways such as in autism or psychopathy. ToM is often defined rather broadly, and we have little systematic knowledge about which (and how many) processes are carried out in the brain when we think about other minds.

ELSA – Effective learning of social affordances for human-robot interaction (ANR/FWF AAPG, I 5755-N)

Work-package 1 - Theory and Practice of Social Affordances. Digital Science Center Innsbruck.

ELSA is a Franco-Austrian research project that aims at studying the learning of social affordances in robots (see here a full description by project coordinator Mehdi Khamassi). The project aims at providing robots with the ability to learn social affordances for natural and efficient interaction with humans. In WP1, we will set up social affordance learning experiments in human adults, looking at how people incorporate mental state information when interacting with others using partially unknown objects (tools). Experimental data will be analyzed with reinforcement learning models.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Project "ToMComputations” (EU project 844734)

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, & Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen

This project aims to provide a solid, formal understanding of the computations undertaken by our cognitive system during ToM, and their implementation in the brain. Two complementary approaches will be taken in separate brain imaging experiments using fMRI. First, a top-down approach will be employed, that uses complex verbal stimuli to study ToM in its widest variety. Second, a computationally well understood task paradigm will be adapted to a social setting, presenting quantitative stimuli that can be exactly captured by a formal model. Overlap in brain activation found by the two approaches will establish a comprehensive account of how the brain achieves this remarkable human ability. The project is carried out at the Donders Centre for Cognition under supervision of a research group that has recently used computational approaches to investigate higher-level human cognitive processes. The project's interdisciplinary approach combines formal computational models with neuroimaging data, and will employ this technique to ask specific questions about Theory of Mind. 

Erwin Schrödinger Project “Neural Hierarchy for ToM in the TPJ“ (J4009-B27) 

Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

Theory of Mind is a complex and multi-faceted concept. Many researchers mean slightly different things when using the term. As a result, it remains unknown exactly what this mysterious ability is; and discussions about the topic often become vague. Brain imaging offers a window for specifying which neural processes exactly are underlying the complex concept of Theory of Mind. While holding great promise for advancing our understanding of human social behavior, previous brain imaging research failed to map Theory of Mind to a well-defined area (or set of areas) of the brain. An outstanding issue is the high anatomical variability surrounding candidate areas for Theory of Mind. 

My Erwin Schrödinger project tackled this problem by applying connectivity-based parcellation analysis to demarcate individual brain areas linked to Theory of Mind. This new method identifies brain areas based on common patterns of connections to other areas of the brain. The approach follows the basic principle that the inputs an area receives, and the outputs it can send, determine the operation it performs (and thus its function). High-resolution images of brain structure and function of healthy young adults were acquired using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a non-invasive brain imaging method. Results of the project (partially published, partially in preparation) show that Theory of Mind is linked to a posterior area in in the temporo-parietal cortex. This highlights that Theory of Mind describes a coherent feature of the human brain, and can be localized in a well-defined brain area with recent methods. Results provide a basis for future brain imaging studies of clinical populations using the same connectivity-based parcellation approach, allowing to use a structural and task-free approach for mapping the neural basis of Theory of Mind.

German Research Foundation (DFG) Scientific Network "Understanding Others" (SCHN 1481/2-1) https://www.understandingothers.net

In order to advance our understanding of social interaction, we carry out four interdisciplinary scientific workshops that integrate findings from philosophy, psychological science and neuroscience. We wish to focus on social cognitive and affective phenomena as well as related social behaviors when it comes to interpersonal interactions. As philosophy, psychological science and neuroscience have traditionally all worked intensively on issues of understanding social interactions, as well as their associated cognitive and affective phenomena, processes and mechanisms, we believe bringing particularly these disciplines together will be extremely fruitful when aiming to 'Understand Others'.