Perspective taking in the human brain: complementary evidence from neuroimaging studies with media-based naturalistic stimuli and artificial controlled paradigms

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2023. Vol. 17. Article 1051934.

Jaaskelainen I., Kosonogov V.

Perception and interpretation of various types of events and information in life crucially

depend on one’s perspective. A specific perspective can be explicitly adopted, for example,

via instructing an experimental subject, implicitly via a priori information given to subjects,

and by subjects’ personality traits or cultural background. The neural basis of perspective

taking has been addressed in a number of recent neuroimaging studies, some of which have

used movies and narratives as media-based stimuli to pursue a holistic understanding of the

phenomenon under ecologically valid conditions. Results across these studies suggest that

the human brain flexibly adapts to support the information-processing needs of different

perspectives, however, also that inferior temporal-occipital areas and posterior-medial

parietal areas are engaged across different perspectives. These findings are complemented

by studies that have investigated specific aspects of perspective taking with highly

controlled experimental designs. They have disclosed involvement of temporoparietal

junction in visual perspective taking and the importance of the affective component of the

pain matrix when empathizing with others’ pain. Identification with the protagonists also

seems to matter, as dorsomedial vs. ventromedial prefrontal areas are recruited when the

protagonist is dissimilar vs. similar to self. Finally, as a translational aspect, perspective

taking can, under certain conditions, serve as an effective emotion regulation technique,

wherein lateral and medial regions of the prefrontal cortex seem to support reappraisal

processes. Together findings from studies with media-based stimuli and more traditional

paradigms complement each other to gain a comprehensive understanding of the neural

basis of perspective taking.

Keywords: neuroimaging, Perspective taking, prefrontal cortex