For example, an individual who likes (and smiles at) a mug and dislikes (and frowns at) a teddy bear can be predicted to reach for the mug and not the bear. The goal-inconsistent action (reaching for the mug) elicits a higher response in the STS (Vander Wyk et al., 2009). Similarly, when two people are cooperating on a joint action, the STS shows increased responses when one person fails to follow the other’s instructions: e.g., when asked to select one specific object (e.g., a red ball), CX-5461 solubility dmso the actor takes

the other object (e.g., the white ball; Shibata et al., 2011; see also Bortoletto et al., 2011). In sum, observers expect human movements to reflect actions, which are sensitive to the environment and efficient means to achieve the individual’s goals. These expectations can generate predictions for sequences of movements on the timescale of seconds. All of these sources of predictions can modulate the neural response in the STS, which is reduced when the stimulus fits the prediction. Moving from the scale of seconds to the scale of minutes, the more general version of the principle

of rational action is that people will act efficiently to achieve their desires, given their beliefs (Baker et al., 2011). Unlike specific motor intentions, beliefs and desires last from minutes (e.g., the belief that your keys are in your purse) to years (e.g., the desire to become a neurosurgeon). These beliefs and desires can be used to predict aspects of a person’s actions, emotions, and other mental states, especially when the person’s Selumetinib research buy beliefs and desires differ from those of the observer (Wellman et al., 2001 and Wimmer and Perner, 1983). Among other regions, a brain region posterior to the superior temporal sulcus, in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), shows a robust responses while thinking about an individual’s beliefs and desires (Saxe and Kanwisher,

2003, Young and Saxe, 2009a, Aichhorn et al., 2009 and Perner et al., 2006). If the TPJ includes a prediction TCL error code, it should respond more strongly to beliefs and desires that are unexpected, given the context. Indeed, there is evidence that the TPJ response is reduced when a person’s beliefs and desires are predictable (though note that the results reviewed in this section were generally not interpreted in terms of prediction error coding by the original authors). In all of these experiments, the source of prediction is not recent experimental history or trained associations, but rather a high level generative model of human thoughts and behaviors. One source of predictions about a person’s beliefs and desires is their actions (Patel et al., 2012). Observers expect other people to be self-consistent and coherent (e.g., Hamilton and Sherman, 1996). This sensitivity to inconsistencies in belief and action is reflected in the TPJ.