%0 Generic %D In Press %T Specialized Networks for Social Cognition in the Primate Brain %A Winrich Freiwald %A Ben Deen %A Julia Sliwa %A Schwiedrzik, Caspar M %X

Primates have evolved diverse cognitive capabilities to navigate their complex social world. To understand how the brain implements critical social cognitive abilities, we describe functional specialization in the domains of face processing, social interaction understanding, and mental state attribution. Systems for face processing are specialized from the level of single cells to populations of neurons within brain regions to hierarchically organized networks that extract and represent abstract social information. Such functional specialization is not confined to the sensorimotor periphery but appears to be a pervasive theme of primate brain organization all the way to the apex regions of cortical hierarchies. Circuits processing social information are juxtaposed with parallel systems involved in processing nonsocial information, suggesting common computations applied to different domains. The emerging picture of the neural basis of social cognition is a set of distinct but interacting subnetworks involved in component processes such as face perception and social reasoning, traversing large parts of the primate brain.

%0 Journal Article %J PLoS Biology %D 2015 %T Face Patch Resting State Networks Link Face Processing to Social Cognition. %A Schwiedrzik, Caspar M %A Wilbert Zarco %A Everling, Stefan %A W. A. Freiwald %K Face recognition %K neural nerworks %K prefrontal cortex %K social cognition %X

Faces transmit a wealth of social information. How this information is exchanged between face-processing centers and brain areas supporting social cognition remains largely unclear. Here we identify these routes using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaque monkeys. We find that face areas functionally connect to specific regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices, as well as subcortical structures supporting emotive, mnemonic, and cognitive functions. This establishes the existence of an extended face-recognition system in the macaque. Furthermore, the face patch resting state networks and the default mode network in monkeys show a pattern of overlap akin to that between the social brain and the default mode network in humans: this overlap specifically includes the posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial parietal, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, areas supporting high-level social cognition in humans. Together, these results reveal the embedding of face areas into larger brain networks and suggest that the resting state networks of the face patch system offer a new, easily accessible venue into the functional organization of the social brain and into the evolution of possibly uniquely human social skills.

%B PLoS Biology %V 13 %P e1002245 %8 09/2015 %G eng %U http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002245 %N 9 %R 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002245