Advanced neuroimaging studies of brain networks involved in social cognition

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Understanding others is essential to deal with growing societal challenges and cross-cultural conflicts. Recent findings in social neuroscience converge on at least two separate routes underlying these skills: an affective-motivational route encompassing social emotions, such as empathy, and a socio-cognitive route that enables understanding others’ believes and intentions (“mentalizing”). Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have supported this dichotomy, and revealed two largely non-overlapping brain networks underlying each of these faculties. Empathy often involves limbic/paralimbic areas, such as anterior insula and anterior midcingulate cortex, while mentalizing frequently engages a neocortical assembly, with medial prefrontal and temporo-parietal cortices at its core.