White Matter and Social Cognition

There is a growing consensus that social cognition and behavior emerge from interactions across distributed regions of the “social brain”. Social neuroscience has traditionally focused its attention on functional response properties of these gray matter networks and neglected the vital role of white matter (WM) connections in establishing such networks and their functions. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive review of prior research on structural connectivity in social neuroscience and highlight the importance of this literature in clarifying brain mechanisms of social cognition. We pay particular attention to the research on three key social processes: face processing, embodied cognition, and theory of mind, and their respective underlying neural networks. To fully identify and characterize the anatomical architecture of these networks, we further implement probabilistic tractography on a large sample of diffusion-weighted imaging data. The combination of an in-depth literature review and the empirical investigation gives us an unprecedented, well-defined landscape of WM pathways underlying major social brain networks. Finally, we discuss current problems in the field, outline suggestions for best practice in diffusion imaging data collection and analysis, and offer new directions for future research. Abbreviations ACC anterior cingulate cortex AD axial diffusivity AF arcuate fasciculus AI anterior insula ALS amyotrophic lateral sclerosis AMG amygdala ASD autism spectrum disorders ATL anterior temporal lobe ATR anterior thalamic radiation CC corpus callosum CING cingulum bundle CST cortico-spinal tract DES direct electrical stimulation dMPFC dorsal medial prefrontal cortex dMRI diffusion-weighted MRI DP developmental prosopagnosia DTI diffusion tensor imaging FA fractional anisotropy FFA fusiform face area IFG inferior frontal gyrus IFOF inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus ILF inferior longitudinal fasciculus IPL inferior parietal lobe MCI mild cognitive impairment MD mean diffusivity MPFC medial prefrontal cortex MS multiple sclerosis OFA occipital face area OFC orbitofrontal cortex face patch PCC posterior cingulate cortex PD Parkinson’s disease PP progressive prosopagnosia PreC precuneus RD radial diffusivity ROI region-of-interest sMRI structural MRI STS superior temporal sulcus TBSS tract-based spatial statistics ToM Theory of Mind TPJ temporo-parietal junction UF uncinate fasciculus VBM voxel based morphometry vMPFC ventral medial prefrontal cortex WM white matter