Embodied simulation in false belief understanding reflected in the rotation related negativity

Abstract

This study examines the spontaneous use of embodied egocentric transformation (EET) in understanding false beliefs in the minds of others. EET involves the participants mentally transforming themselves into the orientation of an agent when trying to adopt his or her visuospatial perspective. Since false belief is propositional and not apparently linked to face orientation and point of view, we do not know if it also involves EET as visuospatial perspective does. In this experiment, an agent placed a ball into one of two boxes and left. The ball then rolled out and moved either into the other box (new box) or back into the original one (old box). The participants were to decide if the agent would try to recover the ball in one specific box while the event-related potential (ERP) technique was used to measure their brain responses. We manipulated the angle between agent and participants when the participants completed the false belief task. Results showed a rotation-related negativity (RRN) at the parietal electrode sites between 300 and 700 ms. The potential’s mean amplitude was a function of the rotation angle: the potential became more negative while the angle between agent and participants increased (i.e., more mental rotation had to be executed). The results support that people might mentally transform themselves to the others’ positions to understand what others think. The current study suggests that higher socio-cognitive processes that are propositional in nature (e.g., false belief reasoning), are also embodied, as stipulated by the embodied simulation theory.