ArticleFrontiers in psychology2016
Using tDCS to Explore the Role of the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction in Theory of Mind and Cognitive Empathy.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on the Cognitive Functions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- tDCS effect on prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Online HD-tRNS Over the Right Temporoparietal Junction Modulates Social Inference But Not Motor Coordination.eNeuro · 2025Trial
- Breakdown of intention-based outcome evaluation after transient right temporoparietal junction deactivation.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) for social cognition and social skills in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2018Trial
- Enhancing theory of mind in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia with transcranial direct current stimulation.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2018Trial
- Gender-specific interpersonal neural synchronization during same-gender closeness-building interactions among strangers: an fNIRS hyperscanning study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Neural basis of social hierarchy across species.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Modulating empathy with tDCS: dissociable roles of rTPJ and lDLPFC.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Aberrant Cognitive-Affective Empathy in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Electrophysiological Evidence of Viewing Social Animation.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Mapping EEG Metrics to Human Affective and Cognitive Models: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Neural hyperscanning in caregiver-child dyads: A paradigm for studying the long-term effects of facilitated vs. disrupted attention on working memory and executive functioning in young children.Developmental review : DR · 2025Article
- The neural structures of theory of mind are valence-sensitive: evidence from three tDCS studies.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2024Article
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Ameliorate Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Understanding the cognitive and neuroimaging bases underlying the detrimental impact of sleep deprivation on reciprocity.iScience · 2024Article
- The neural mechanisms of identifiable victim effect in prosocial decision-making.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- The vocal side of empathy: neural correlates of pain perception in spoken complaints.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Article
- The role of prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction in interpersonal comfort and emotional approach.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Cognitive predictors of Social processing in congenital atypical development.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) is thought to be closely related to theory of mind (ToM) and cognitive empathy. In the present study, we investigated whether these socio-cognitive abilities could be modulated with non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the rTPJ. Participants received anodal (excitatory), cathodal (inhibitory), or sham stimulation before performing a social cognitive task which included inferring other's intention (the ToM condition) and inferring other's emotion (the cognitive empathy condition). Our results showed that the accuracy of both ToM and cognitive empathy decreased after receiving the cathodal stimulation, suggesting that altering the cortical excitability in the rTPJ could influence human's socio-cognitive abilities. The results of this study emphasize the critical role of the rTPJ in ToM and cognitive empathy and demonstrate that these socio-cognitive abilities could be modulated by the tDCS.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.