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Abstract

Social cognition and language are two core features of the human species.
Despite distributed recruitment of brain regions in each mental capacity, the left parietal lobe (LPL) represents a zone of topographical convergence. This study quantitatively summarizes previous neuroimaging studies on social cognition and language. Using connectivity-based parcellation on a meta-analytically defined volume of interest (VOI), regional coactivation patterns within this VOI allowed for the identiHcation of functionally distinct subregions. Across parcellation solutions, two clusters emerged consistently in rostro-ventral and caudo-ventral aspects of the parietal VOI. Both clusters were functionally signiHcantly associated with social-cognitive and language processing. In particular, the rostra-ventral cluster was associated with lower-level processing facets, while the caudo-ventral cluster was associated with higher-level processes across both functions. Contrarily, in
the (less stable) dorsal parietal VOI, all clusters reKected computation of general-purpose processes, including working memory and matching tasks, that are frequently co-recruited by social or language processes. Our results hence favor a rostro-caudal distinction of low- vs. high-level processes underlying social cognition and language in the left inferior parietal lobe.